by Rita Herron
He didn’t see anything through the front window so he moved to the side and peered in. The window gave him a view of the kitchen where he saw Mrs. Wake pacing with her hand over her belly. She doubled over and cried out, and Chaz froze.
Was she in labor?
He eased around the side of the house, looking in other windows, but it was dark and he couldn’t see anything. He craned his head to listen for sounds indicating Tawny-Lynn was inside, but nothing.
Finally he moved back to the kitchen window and saw Mrs. Wake collapse into a chair, one hand reaching for her phone. She knocked it off the table and leaned her head on her hands, heaving as she breathed through the contraction.
Dammit. Did she have Tawny-Lynn?
He circled back to the front door and pounded on it. Afraid the woman was in trouble, he jiggled the door but it was locked. “Mrs. Wake, it’s Sheriff Camden. Open up please.”
Seconds bled into minutes, then he heard her feet shuffling. When she opened the door, her face was contorted in pain, and she was clutching her belly.
“You’re in labor?”
“How did you know?” she asked through a deep breath.
“I didn’t. I’m looking for Tawny-Lynn Boulder.”
Her cheeks reddened with exertion as she gripped the door. “Why would I know where she is?”
“Because someone kidnapped her from her house tonight.”
Her eyes widened in shock, but another contraction seized her, and her legs buckled. He caught her before she hit the floor and put his arm around her waist.
“Come on, I’ll drive you to the hospital.”
“I need my husband,” she whispered.
That wasn’t going to happen. “Is Tawny-Lynn here?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Of course not.” She made panting sounds as he helped her to the car. She fell into the seat, her face ashen.
He had to get her to the E.R. But he had to search the house first just in case she was lying.
“I’ll be right back.”
“Where are you going?” she cried.
He didn’t answer. He ran back in the house, racing through each room and flipping on lights. He searched closets, the pantry, the attic, but the house was empty.
He noticed a suitcase on the floor and assumed it was Mrs. Wake’s so he grabbed it and jogged down the steps. She was clutching the seat, heaving through another contraction, when he jumped inside.
“I got your bag.”
“Get me to the hospital,” she said. “Or I’m going to deliver this baby in your car.”
He flipped on the siren and peeled from the drive. Thankfully traffic was nonexistent and the hospital was close by. Five minutes later, he roared into the emergency room driveway and threw the car into Park. He jumped out, yelling for help.
“This woman is about to deliver,” he said as two E.R. workers raced out to meet him.
“Please, Sheriff, my husband should be here.”
“I’m sorry.” He couldn’t make that happen right now, not with Tawny-Lynn missing and in danger. And his deputy was guarding Peyton. “Is there anyone else I can call?”
She shook her head. “My mother.” She recited the number, and he called as he jumped back in his car. Five rings later, a woman answered, her voice laced with sleep.
“This is Sheriff Camden. Your daughter asked me to call you. She’s in labor. I just dropped her at the hospital.”
“Oh, thank you, Sheriff. I’ll get there as soon as I can.”
His phone was buzzing with another call as he pulled away. He checked the number and saw it was his mother. Why would she be calling him at 4:00 a.m.?
“Mom?”
“Chaz, I need you,” she said in a shaky voice.
“What’s wrong?”
“Your father...”
Had his father gone after the coach? “What happened?”
“He’s gone.”
“Gone where?”
“I don’t know, but you have to come over here. We need to talk.”
Fear rolled through Chaz. First Tawny-Lynn was kidnapped. Now his father was missing?
What the hell was going on?
He sped away from the hospital, siren blaring as he raced toward his parents’ house. Worry clawed at him as he tried to make sense out of the situation. If Wake hadn’t killed Ruth, then Tawny-Lynn had seen the killer that day after the crash, and the killer was afraid she’d still remember his or her face.
But why do something to his father?
He rounded the curve on two wheels, tires squealing as he swerved up the drive to his parents’ estate. Sweat beaded on his head as he threw the car into Park and ran inside.
His mother met him at the door, her complexion pasty, her eyes red-rimmed. She’d been crying. “Oh, Chaz, I’m so afraid.”
He hugged her and ushered her into the den to sit down. “What happened, Mom?”
She burst into tears. “I...don’t know. He was so upset last night when we got home, and he started drinking. Then he pulled out all the old pictures of Ruth, and then I saw him looking at pictures of the crash and all the articles that ran afterward. The pleas we made for information on Ruth and Peyton, the story about Tawny-Lynn and the story about the coach’s arrest.”
He handed her a handkerchief and waited while she dried her eyes.
“I tried to talk to him, but he was so upset. Shouting and saying crazy things about blame and guilt and Tawny-Lynn seeing something.”
A bad feeling gnawed at his gut. “Then what?”
“He grabbed his gun from his desk and said he had to finish things, to finally put everything to rest.”
“What did he mean by that?”
“I don’t know,” his mother said in a shaky voice. “He just said he had to do it for our family. Then he took the gun and left.”
“Was he going after Coach Wake?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
Chaz inhaled sharply. “Mom, Coach Wake admitted that he had sex with the girls and caused the bus crash, but he denied killing Ruth. If you know something, anything...please tell me.”
Another storm of tears rained down her face, and she hugged her arms around her middle as if she might fall apart if she let go. “I don’t know...not anything really.”
Emotions threatened to overwhelm him. “But you suspect something?”
She nodded miserably. “That night...of the accident...” She heaved a sob. “That night I found Ruth’s softball bag...I saw him hiding it.”
“Dad had her bag?” The bag that was never recovered from the accident. They’d assumed it had burned in the fire.
“Yes. When I asked him, he went crazy and refused to talk about it. I...forgot about it for a while, but tonight when I saw him with the pictures, he had that bag again.”
Chaz’s blood ran cold. If his father had Ruth’s gym bag, that meant he had been at the crash site.
He could have seen Ruth, talked to her...and if she’d told him about the coach...
No...it was impossible.
His father had a temper, had been overprotective of Ruth, had worried about appearances...
Cop instincts kicked in, and his mind took another dangerous leap. His father had been the one to lead the animosity against Tawny-Lynn. He’d barged into her room at the hospital.
Dear God. Had his father killed Ruth?
* * *
“YOU WON’T GET away with this,” Tawny-Lynn said as she finished the suicide note. “Chaz will figure out the truth.”
Mr. Camden laughed harshly. “No, he won’t. If he really does care about you, he’ll be devastated to learn that you’re the one who killed his sister, and that you used him all this time.”
“He’s smar
ter than you think,” she said. “He doesn’t let emotions interfere with his job.” Sadly, she knew that firsthand.
He waved the gun in her face. “Shut up and get out.”
“Chaz will never believe I killed myself.”
“I’ll take care of that.” He dragged her toward the ravine. He’d parked at almost exactly the same spot where the bus had gone over the edge seven years ago. It fit with his plan.
Everyone would think that she was overcome with guilt and decided to end her life where she’d taken Ruth’s.
“Even if Chaz believes you, my sister won’t. Besides, you’ve forgotten that I had a broken leg. There’s no way I could have killed Ruth.” She struggled against him. “How did you get her on White Forks without my father seeing you?”
Mr. Camden’s voice trembled. “I buried her while he was at the hospital with you. Now it’s time to end this.”
He squeezed her arm. “You grabbed Ruth’s leg and pushed her down,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders. “She hit her head on a rock.”
Tawny-Lynn shook her head. “Killing her was an accident. If you explained that Ruth fell, everyone would understand,” she said, “but killing me is premeditated murder.”
He shoved her toward the edge. “With you gone and your heartfelt confession, no one will ever know about either.”
She stumbled forward, the ravine below resurrecting memories of the crash that day. She could hear the screams of the other girls as the bus went over.
Remembered the cries of the parents as they’d arrived. Her terror in searching for Peyton.
She’d finally found Peyton again. She couldn’t die like this.
And she couldn’t leave this world with Chaz thinking that she’d killed his sister.
Chapter Twenty-One
Panic crowded Chaz’s chest. “Mother, someone broke in and abducted Tawny-Lynn tonight. Do you think Dad would hurt her?”
“I don’t know, Chaz,” she cried. “I’ve never seen him like this. He was...out of his head.”
“I have to find him before he does something to her,” he said. “Do you have any idea where he might take her?”
She shook her head as more tears filled her eyes and spilled over. “He just kept saying that the day of the crash ruined our lives. That Tawny-Lynn did.”
If he was thinking about the crash, then he might go there, take Tawny-Lynn back to the place where everything had fallen apart.
He squeezed his mother’s hands. “I have to go. If you hear from him, call me.”
She nodded, terror streaking her face. “Please find him, stop him,” she whispered. “If he hurt Ruth, he didn’t mean to. But if he hurts Tawny-Lynn—”
“I know,” he said. “I know.”
He pushed to his feet and jogged back outside. His tires screamed as he accelerated, sped down the drive and veered onto the highway.
He phoned his deputy, relieved when he answered. “How’s Peyton?”
“Worried.” He paused. “Did you find Tawny-Lynn?”
“Not yet. But I have a lead. Stay with Peyton. I’ll call you back.”
He hung up, then swung onto the road leading to the bus crash site, his heart throbbing. Dawn was on the horizon, red and orange swirls painting the sky, promising a clear day instead of the rain the weatherman had predicted.
As he rounded the curve, he spotted his father’s car on the side of the road, parked sideways, nose heading toward the ravine. He slowed, his breath stalling.
His father stood behind Tawny-Lynn, a gun pressed to her back.
He rolled the car to a stop several hundred feet back, then eased his door open. In spite of the fact that he was careful, gravel crunched beneath his boots as he slowly walked toward them.
His father swung his head toward him. His mother was right. He’d never seen his father looking so crazed. He tightened his hold on Tawny-Lynn’s arm. “Don’t come any closer, Chaz.”
“Dad, you have to stop this right now,” Chaz said. “You don’t want to hurt Tawny-Lynn.”
“She has to die—don’t you see that?” his father snarled. “She saw me that day. She’ll ruin everything for our family.”
“It’s not her fault.” Chaz’s gaze met Tawny-Lynn’s. She looked scared, but gave him such a look of sorrow and trust that he nearly choked on his love for her.
Love?
Yes, he did love her, he realized. But he’d been such a fool that he’d never told her.
Instead he’d run from his feelings for her by turning on her like everyone in the town had.
* * *
TAWNY-LYNN HATED the anguish in Chaz’s eyes. She’d never once suspected his father of killing Ruth. And neither had Chaz.
He had to be in shock.
“Just walk away, Chaz, and let me handle this. You’ll see. She wrote out a confession.” He waved the barrel of the gun at her temple. “She was jealous of Ruth and Peyton, jealous of the coach because he wanted Ruth, not her. Isn’t that right, Tawny-Lynn?”
She cut him a scathing look. “You know that’s not what happened, Mr. Camden.”
“I can’t lose my family,” Camden said, anger radiating from his every pore. “I won’t.”
“You will if you kill Tawny-Lynn, Dad,” Chaz said in a gruff voice. “Right now, Mom and I know that what happened with Ruth was an accident. But doing this, intentionally hurting Tawny-Lynn is not the same thing.”
“I didn’t mean to do it,” he said. “Ruth was arguing with me. She said she was going to tell everyone about Coach Wake. I just tried to stop her and I grabbed her arm, but she fell. Her head hit a rock.” Tears clogged his voice. “I loved Ruth....”
“I know that, and so does Mom.” Chaz slowly inched toward his father.
“We can forgive that, Dad. It was an accident. But we can’t forgive you if you hurt Tawny-Lynn.”
His father’s hand trembled, the gun shaking as he waved it back and forth between himself and Tawny-Lynn.
“Dad, please put down the gun.” Chaz held out his hand. “Just set it on the ground and we’ll talk.”
“No, then everyone will know...” He swung the gun up and aimed it at his own head, and fear seized Tawny-Lynn. If Chaz’s father killed himself, Chaz would never get over the guilt.
Camden clenched his hand tighter on the gun, but Tawny-Lynn threw a sharp jab to his side with her elbow and knocked his gun hand up into the air. The gun fired, a bullet flying upward, but in his panic, Camden shoved her aside.
Chaz lunged toward his father, wrestling for the gun. The gun fired again, but Chaz managed to wrangle it from his father’s hands and tossed it a few yards away, then threw his father onto the ground.
She stumbled, lost her footing and slid. Gravel rained down the ravine as she slipped over the side.
She screamed, grappling for something to hold on to so she wouldn’t plunge into the ravine below.
* * *
CHAZ FRANTICALLY SEIZED his father’s hands and yanked them behind his back, then snapped handcuffs around his wrists. He didn’t want to arrest him, but he had to take him in.
Tawny-Lynn’s scream brought him out of his shock, and he jerked his head up and saw her going over the edge. She’d saved his father’s life by throwing that punch.
He couldn’t let her die.
“Stay put, Dad,” Chaz said in a low growl in his father’s ear. He ran to the edge of the embankment, then knelt. Tawny-Lynn had managed to grab a rock jutting out, but dirt and gravel were spewing down the embankment in her face, and her fingers were slipping.
“Hang on,” he shouted. “I’ve got you.”
He wrapped his fingers around one wrist, then reached for the other hand but she lost hold. Her hand missed, and she dangled over the ravine. His arm muscles strain
ed as he braced himself in the dirt and stretched to reach for her.
“Chaz!” she cried. “I can’t hold on.”
“Yes, you can! You have to,” he said. “Trust me.”
She was trembling, her body flailing to grab hold. He fell to his belly and stretched, finally latching on to her other arm. Her fingers dug into his wrist, and he grunted and slowly hauled her up over the edge, crawling backward and pulling her with him until they were safely away from the overhang.
His father lifted his head and looked up, his expression defeated as Chaz folded Tawny-Lynn into his arms.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered into her hair.
“I...didn’t remember, not until tonight.”
No wonder she’d blocked it out. “I know, I know.” He cupped her face between his hands and checked her for injuries. “Are you all right?”
She nodded, although tears trickled down her face. “I’m sorry, Chaz.... Sorry about Ruth.”
“Shh,” he murmured. Then he wrapped her in his embrace. “I love you, Tawny-Lynn. I was so afraid I was going to lose you before I could tell you.”
She looked into his eyes, the sweet passionate, courageous woman he’d come to know staring back. “I love you, too, Chaz.”
His heart swelled with emotions, with the need to hold her, possess her, to keep her near.
They had to talk about the future, deal with his father, with his mother...
But not yet.
For now, he bent his head and kissed her, savoring the fact that she was alive and in his arms.
Epilogue
Tawny-Lynn couldn’t believe how happy she was. Today was her wedding day.
Peyton peeked in, then straightened her veil. “You look beautiful, sis.”
“Thanks.” Tawny-Lynn hugged her sister, thanking God every day that Peyton had survived. “I like Ben.”
Peyton smiled. “He’s a good guy. He’s been patient with me. And—” she wiggled her finger, a diamond glittering on her left hand “—he asked me to marry him.”
“That’s wonderful.” They hugged through their tears, then Peyton pulled away, grabbed them tissues and laughed. “Now, stop crying or you’ll mess up your makeup.”