Hidden Witness

by Beverly Long

  “Well, that’s interesting,” Chase said.

  “He was drunk that night.”

  “Well lubed for sure. Sloppy, yeah. But incoherent, no. I suspect he heard it more or less accurately.”

  “What does it mean?” she asked.

  “I think it means that Gary Blake and Sheila Stanton are involved in some way. But not publicly.”

  Raney put her hand up to her mouth. “I saw him staring at the door. I thought it was weird. I bet he was watching for her. Waiting.”

  Chase nodded. “Something else makes sense. And it actually makes me sort of happy.”

  Raney shook her head. “Okay, you lost me.”

  “When you had your accident, you told Blake that it was a black or blue SUV that got too close. He reacted to that.”

  “He did?”

  “Yeah. Subtly but definitely a reaction. He knows that Sheila drives a black Lexus SUV. It wasn’t until you said that it was a man that he relaxed.”

  “And that makes you happy because...?”

  “Because it probably was Sheila. That means it wasn’t Malone’s hired guns. That’s good.”

  “True. But don’t you think it’s bad that the police are letting her get away with it?”

  Chase shrugged. “We don’t know that for sure. Maybe Blake initially suspected Sheila, based on the fact that he has some knowledge of the fact that she’s still...infatuated with me.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I can’t believe I just said that word. But once you said it was a man, he went down another path.”

  “In that case, he’s not a dirty cop.”

  “Right. Stupid. But not necessarily dirty. What likely happened is that he saw me talking to Sheila. Probably got jealous, demanded to know what it was about. Maybe she told him. Then it could have gone one of two ways. Either she continued to deny it and he believed her or, more likely, she continued to deny it and he didn’t believe her. Which maybe means he’s not so stupid.”

  “Or she admitted it and he’s continuing to stick by her,” Raney said.

  “Okay. We’re back to stupid.”

  Raney smiled. “I like Lloyd. He’s a nice guy. And it was good of him to return these photos.”

  Chase picked one up. “I think I was about twelve in this. My dad was still alive. He took the picture. We’d gone to some park for a picnic and my mother had said that we couldn’t play until she got a picture.” He paused. “That was a good day.”

  She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his forehead. “Keep those thoughts here. Push the other ones away. Far away.”

  He reached for her. “I wish to hell we were alone.”

  She let him hold her. In his arms, she felt safe. And it was wonderful.

  But her gut told her that it was temporary, that things were about to change.

  * * *

  DUE TO THE need to have two people outside at all times and the way the shifts worked out, Chase stood outside in the dark while Raney was inside, eating lasagna with Toby.

  He’d been crazy enough to get close to the windows once to look inside. They’d been sitting at the dining room table, paint samples in hand, staring at the far wall, likely in deep discussion about exactly how Sunset Wonder was going to look on the wall.

  He was glad to be outside, alone with his thoughts. He could have stayed dry on the porch and had a place to sit but he’d chosen to walk the property, getting wet in the steady rain that had been falling for the past half hour.

  Seeing that photo of his mother and brothers had been a surprise. He distinctly remembered posing for the picture but didn’t think he’d ever seen the finished product. As a twelve-year-old boy, he wouldn’t have thought to ask about it.

  But his mother had saved it, had put away three copies, one for each of her sons. Had she done it right away? Or had that happened years later, after Brick Doogan had entered their lives? Had she perhaps found the pictures, decided they were a reflection of happier times and wanted her boys to have that memory?

  He made another pass across the yard. Looked down the road, but it was raining too hard to see any lights at Fitzler’s. Turning, he started back and realized there was a light in his own house where there should not have been.

  Someone was in Brick’s room. And for one crazy moment, he thought the man had come back. Then he grabbed hold of his senses and carefully approached. The heavy curtains hid most everything, but there was a sliver of light showing where the two panels came together. But it wasn’t enough to see anything.

  Had someone gotten into the house?

  Someone who wanted to harm Raney?

  He moved quickly but quietly. He eased open the front door, listened for Raney or Toby, didn’t hear anything. The house was warm and smelled good, and when he saw that Toby and Raney had put a big strip of Sunset Wonder on the wall to test it out, his step faltered.

  He pulled his gun. Got to the kitchen. Now he heard voices. Raney. Toby. Couldn’t make out the words, but they didn’t appear distressed.

  Got to Brick’s door. Listened. They were across the room, near the attached bath.

  He swung around the corner, ready to shoot whoever he found there.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chase almost dropped his damn gun.

  Raney let out a squeak and Toby dropped the paint can he was holding. Fortunately, the lid was on.

  The room had been completely emptied of its contents. The bed had been stripped down to the mattress. The closet doors were open, showing a clean space.

  The walls had been painted. The ghastly gold had been replaced with the Prickly Pear Delight that he’d thought they were buying for the dining room. It looked totally different.

  “How?” he managed.

  Raney smiled. “I wanted to surprise you.”

  He walked farther into the room. She’d surprised him, all right. He struggled to maintain his composure, keenly aware that a fellow officer was standing in the room.

  “Where did you put everything?” he asked.

  She smiled. “It was tricky but I would wait until I heard you on the other side of the roof and then I’d run a few bags out to the garage. You have a couple of very full garbage bins out there. Things I thought could be donated are in a bag, in the bathroom. I just...just didn’t think you wanted to deal with this—” she glanced at Toby, who was clearly interested in the conversation “—this mess.”

  It was the nicest thing that anybody had ever done for him. When he’d talked to Raney, had finally opened up to someone about those years of living with Brick, the ever-present pressure in his chest had finally started to release. He would never have trusted anyone else with that secret. But he knew that he could trust her, knew that she wouldn’t judge.

  Knew that she would offer unconditional love.

  Like this.

  The hell with what information got back to anybody in the department or even the chief. “Toby, can we have a minute here?” he said.

  The young man started to leave the room. But before he could get to the doorway, Chase’s phone buzzed. He pulled it out, recognized the number and knew that it had to be bad.

  “Hollister,” he answered.

  “This is Chief Bates. We’ve got a problem. We now have very good reason to believe that your location has been compromised. You need to bring Lorraine Taylor back in.”

  Chase walked to the window, lifted the edge of the heavy curtain with a finger. “Tell me what happened.”

  “There have been a string of robberies near Patch Street.”

  That was the street where he’d first met Raney, where she’d gotten her hair cut.

  “Reports got taken by a couple different officers and we didn’t piece things together as quickly as we should have.”

  He could hear the anger in the chief’s voice.

  “It wasn’t until the yogurt shop got hit that the pattern was established,” Chief Bates said. “Somebody had stolen security-camera footage from several of the mom-and-pop stores on that block.”
>
  Chase tried to tamp down the ringing in his ears. Vincenze had given up the drop location, maybe voluntarily, maybe under duress. Didn’t matter. Once they had that, it was a simple matter of trying to identify where Raney had gone after that. And with who.

  “You think they got enough to know that she went into the hair salon and then a couple hours later left with me?”

  “We do. Based on the angles of the cameras.”

  “I didn’t have a name tag on,” he said, fighting for reason. “Even if they saw me, how would they know my name? How would they know that I was coming home to Ravesville?”

  The chief paused. “Gavin Henderson is dead. Shot at close range after he’d taken a beating that produced very similar injuries to those found on Luis Vincenze.”

  Gavin Henderson. Chase felt sick. He was a good officer. A husband. A father. But it made sense. Gavin had arrived with his camera around his neck. While there were lots of police officers on the St. Louis PD, there were only a few police photographers. And only a few of them were male. It would not have taken someone very long to work through the list.

  “I want you in your car in five minutes. If necessary, I’ll put Lorraine in a cell if that’s what it takes to keep her safe.”

  Let her stay here. He would keep her safe. But the chief’s logic made more sense. Sure, they could send more officers to Ravesville, but that probably wasn’t practical or cost-efficient. They certainly couldn’t count on the local police department to be helpful. And no matter what argument Chase made, the chief was going to shoot it down. He wanted his witness where he could see her and to know that she was safe.

  “All right. Expect us in two hours.” Chase hung up and turned toward Raney.

  “What’s wrong?”

  There was no time to cushion the blow, to soften the words. “That was Chief Bates. We’re moving you. Now. This location has been compromised.” He could spare her the details about Gavin Henderson. “You’ve got two minutes to throw some things in a suitcase.”

  “But—”

  “Raney, please,” he said.

  She nodded and ran out of the room, past Toby, who still stood in the doorway.

  Chase quietly told the officer about Henderson. “Raney and I will take one vehicle, you and Leo follow us.” He used his cell phone to call Leo and quickly filled him in.

  Then he set about gathering every one of the extra weapons that Dawson had brought. He separated the arsenal between himself and the other two officers.

  By the time he was done, Raney was downstairs, her small suitcase with her. She’d put on a coat.

  They walked out the door and the four of them got into the two vehicles.

  Chase stuck his head out the window and spoke to the other men. “Let’s go. Keep close to me. Under no circumstances do we get separated.”

  * * *

  CHASE HAD TURNED on the heat but still, Raney was shivering. She’d gotten soaked just running to the SUV. But it wasn’t the rain that had her blood running cold.

  The wind was blowing hard, rocking the SUV. When they turned left out of the lane, rather than right, which would have taken them into Ravesville, Raney had to resist pulling on Chase’s arm.

  She wanted to go to the Wright Here, Wright Now Café. She wanted to sit in the booth and order a hot chocolate and a piece of cherry pie with vanilla ice cream. I’ll be safe there.

  But she wouldn’t be. And she’d be putting others in danger. The way she was putting Chase in danger right now.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  He turned to look at her. “What are you talking about?”

  “For all this. For getting you into this mess. I’m sorry they chose you.”

  He took one hand off the wheel and reached over to grab her hand. He brought it up to his lips, kissed it gently. “The Sunset Wonder is a perfect match for the fireplace. Just like you said.”

  She tried to jerk her hand back but he wouldn’t let go. “You want to talk about paint colors now?” she asked, hardly believing it.

  He smiled against her hand. Then he kissed it again. “I want to talk about paint colors and carpet samples and whether bronze or silver faucets would be better in the bathroom. I want to talk about the flowers that you’ll plant and the rose bushes that I’ll have to drag home from the store. I want to talk about our children and the noise they’ll make running up and down the stairs.”

  “But your job?”

  “I’ll find another one,” he said. “We belong together, Raney. We belong in Ravesville. Marry me, Raney.”

  She thought her heart might burst. She turned in her seat, to tell him that she loved him, and out of the corner of her eye saw something move.

  “Watch out!” she yelled.

  Chase floored it and got past the vehicle that was coming at them like a bat out of hell from the side road, its lights off.

  They heard the crash and knew that Leo and Toby had not been as fortunate. Even the howling wind could not dull the horrific crunch of metal on metal.

  “We have to go back!” she yelled.

  “No. That was no accident.” Chase took his cell phone out and tossed it in her lap. “Call 911. Tell them that there’s a multivehicle accident with serious injuries at the intersection of Hawk and Billow.”

  Her fingers were shaking so badly that she could barely press the keys. But she managed it. She told the person on the other end exactly what Chase had told her to say. Then the 911 operator asked for her name.

  “Raney. Raney Hollister,” she whispered and ended the call.

  Chase turned and looked at her. “Hang on, Raney. We’re going to get out of this.”

  But that didn’t seem too likely when up ahead, on the narrow dark road, their headlights picked up the shape of a vehicle parked horizontally across the road. They would have to go through it.

  There was no place to go.

  Chase whipped the vehicle to the right. They left the paved road, dipped down into the ditch then up again and they came out on the other side. They were in a field of corn that had been recently picked. They pounded over the roughness of the remaining short stalks, their SUV rocking. “We’re going back the other way,” Chase yelled.

  He was making a big circle. They might make it. They just might.

  And then they hit a low spot in the field and their tires sunk into the rain-soaked ground and they were stuck.

  Chase flipped off his lights and threw open the door. It was still raining but there was some light coming from the full moon that was hidden by the clouds. He reached for Raney and hauled her out. “Run!” he yelled.

  She thought he would go for the road but instead he pulled her farther into the field. She stumbled but he kept her upright and moving.

  She risked a look behind her. The road was no longer dark. She saw lights and men and knew that they weren’t going to make it.

  She almost ran into the first tree before she realized that the field had given way to the woods. She could smell the wet foliage, got slapped in the face with a dripping branch.

  They went maybe thirty more steps when Chase jerked her to a stop. “Get up into this tree,” he said. “Don’t make a sound. No matter what. And don’t come down until I come back. Do you understand?”

  He was leaving her. He was going to leave her and draw their attention away from her. “No,” she said. “We stay together.”

  He put both hands on her face and kissed her hard. It was desperate with need. “It’s too dangerous. Listen to me. Do exactly what I say. They won’t expect me to leave you.” She felt movement and thought it might be him pulling something from his pocket. He pressed a gun into her hand. “Take this. It’s ready to go. Just squeeze the trigger hard. If they see you, start shooting. Don’t hesitate. Do you understand?”

  She was crying. “Yes.”

  He kissed her again. “Give me your foot,” he said, bending down.

  He boosted her up into the tree. She felt for the branches and climbed. She’d told
Chase that she wasn’t afraid of heights, but with each foothold she became more and more terrified, knowing that she was truly alone. She got as high as she could go and tried to find a spot to rest her weight so that she could remain motionless.

  She was wet and cold and her hands stung. She suspected they were bleeding. After a few minutes in the dark, she heard noise off to the left, deeper into the woods, and knew Chase was deliberately trying to lead their attackers away from her.

  To her right, she heard crashing through the trees, saw big lights as their pursuers hunted them down.

  Felt them stop under her tree.

  * * *

  CHASE RAN FAST, not even attempting to be quiet. Go. Go. Go. The words pumped through him as he wrestled to stay upright when he skidded across rain-slicked tree roots and soft muddy patches. His injured leg felt the stress and cramped up in response. He pushed through the pain.

  He prayed he wouldn’t ram into a tree and knock himself out before he could get far enough away from Raney. He knew he couldn’t outrun them. But that wasn’t his intent. He just needed to get to a place where he had decent cover. He hadn’t been able to get an accurate count but he thought there were at least two, maybe three. Not great odds but not horrific, either. If they split up, he could take a couple out at a time.

  Of course, if they managed to neutralize him and discovered Raney wasn’t with him, she would be in terrible danger.

  He took a step, felt the ground give way and half slid, half stumbled down a sharp embankment. He landed in water that came up over his calves. Some kind of stream. He couldn’t see a damn thing now. He plunged forward, hoping that it was narrow, hoping that he hadn’t gotten disoriented and he was truly crossing the stream rather than walking the length of it.

  He hit the opposite bank, let himself feel a moment of relief that he was out of the water and scrambled up the side. Once up on solid ground, he found a big tree and sank down behind it. He gulped in air as quietly as he could.

  Now he needed the element of surprise.

  He saw the bobbing and weaving of their light. He risked a look around the tree. He would have a good angle as they crested the bank. His only chance was if they put their high-powered flashlights on the ground while they pulled themselves up over the edge. If they didn’t, their light would blind him and he wouldn’t get his shot off.