by K. T. Tomb
“I’ve never heard you so passionate, Special Agent Zack Donovan. Are you in love with Mary Gordon?”
“Fuck off. Just get Ira Rabb to me, now! If you do, you’ll have the collar, you’ll get your girl, and you’ll get the glowing media interviews.”
“What girl will I get?” Agent Calder asked.
“Agent Emily Graves. Isn’t she sitting in your lap right now? It’s a two-man chopper, and you don’t fly, so—”
“Touché,” Calder said and hung up.
A minute later, Zack saw the unmarked black helicopter swing down the trail in search of Ira Rabb.
Chapter Eighteen
They had been trapped in the old miner’s cabin for hours with Bobby Rabb on the other side of the door.
“What are you going to do with us?” Mary called out to Bobby Rabb. She had searched for every possible means of escape. There was food and water in the cabin and a little bit of wood. She knew the water wouldn’t last through the day. She wasn’t sure about the wood, but it didn’t seem like a good idea to make a fire right now.
As blissful as it had been to fall asleep to the sound of Cassidy’s deep breathing while she lay in her arms, they were still not home or even close to being on their way home.
“I may just let you rot there,” Bobby replied from the other side of the door. “That’s what you were doing in L.A., anyway. This will just kill you quicker.”
“Why kill us at all? I thought you were trying to save us. Maybe not me, but Cassidy. Obviously, you care for her.”
“If I let you live, you’ll just tell the police what I did to you and obviously, you have proof.”
She put her hands over Cassidy’s ears. “How dare you say that!”
“Don’t worry. I already enlightened her and she still refuses to call me Daddy.”
“Stop!” she said. “Don’t say another word.”
“You’re in no position to bargain, Mary Gordon. I’ve already been to prison. I’m not going back. Do you know what it was like going to prison with this scar on my face?”
“I’m sorry that happened to you. It looked terrible when I first saw you, but it has nothing to do with me.”
“You did it, Mary. You did it with your diamond ring. That night.”
“Shut up! My child is right here!” She kept her hands over Cassidy’s ears.
“I wanted to pay you back, Mary, for what you did to my face. I searched and searched for you. I knew your maiden name. I staked you out at the college. It was a pledge for my fraternity. Rape a teacher. Get into the fraternity. I made it, by the way.”
“Stop it. A seven year old can hear you! I promise, I won’t call the police. Just let us go home.”
“Yeah, right. I don’t think so.”
“I made a promise to your father. He only agreed to help me if I promised not to call the police.”
She hoped that the long pause meant that she was getting through to him. She plunged ahead.
“You talked to my father?”
“Yeah. He came up here with me to talk to you, but he collapsed on the trail. He’s dying.”
“You’re lying.”
“Truth. His face was gray. He said that you had never hurt anyone, and that you never would, not on purpose. I believed him. I still do. I trust him, Bobby. I trust his words.”
“Shut up! You’re just lying to get your daughter back and get to walk out of here. My dad is too sick for hiking the backcountry.”
“He did it because of Cassidy, and who he is to her. He’s a brave, good man, who doesn’t want you, or her, hurt.”
She screamed as she heard the report of the pistol six times and the tearing sound the bullets made as they ripped through the wooden door. She held Cassidy tight and curled around her on the floor.
Bobby Rabb was losing it. She had better stop pushing him if she was going to be able get out alive. She had to think. She had to come up with the right things to say in order to get them out of there safe and alive.
Her mind began to work through everything she knew about the life of Ira and Bobby Rabb. The secret was in there somewhere; she just had to figure out what it was and get the right response.
“Mommy?”
“Yes, baby?”
“I’m scared.”
“Me, too, baby. Me, too.”
“You came for me!”
“Of course I did. I love you.”
“I love you, too, Mommy.”
“Did a rattlesnake bite you? Were you in the hospital?”
“Is that what he told you?” Mary asked.
“Yeah.”
“Well, he lied. Completely lied.”
“I knew he was lying!” Cassidy said. “Don’t trust him. Don’t open the door.”
“You’re a smart girl. I found your Little Mermaid headband.”
“Cool. Did you get my 9-1-1 call?”
“No, did you call 9-1-1?”
“Days ago. But I couldn’t tell them with him listening, so I sang Let It Go to the 9-1-1 operator.”
“Oh, sweetie!”
“And I did American Sign Language to a hiker and he knew I needed help. Did he call the police?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how did you find me, Mommy?”
“An FBI agent and Bobby’s dad helped me.”
“Is Bobby my dad?”
“No, honey. He’s not,” she lied.
“Oh, I’m so glad!” Cassidy wept against her and she felt every bit of love rise up for what might become their last moments alive.
Chapter Nineteen
“Bobby?” Mary called out. She thought she had the exact combination of words to convince him to let them go. “You still there?”
“What do ya want?”
“Your dad told me about the accident.”
“What accident?”
“The one that took your mother.”
“Yeah. So?”
“I know how much it hurts to lose someone.”
“Big deal.”
“Yeah. It is a big deal. Everything hurts inside. You can hardly breathe. You feel guilty. You wonder what you could have done differently. All of those things. We look for ways to replace the emptiness.”
She heard the bar on the door being rattled loose and then the door opened. He charged through the door with the ax in his hands.
“How do we do that, huh?” He was screaming at the top of his lungs.
Cassidy screamed and scrambled under the bed. Mary felt the whistling of the ax as it breezed past her head and cut through some of her hair as she moved her head. She scrambled after Cassidy and moved back as close to the wall as she was able. She covered Cassidy with her own body.
“How do we do that?” he screamed. The blade of the ax sunk into the wood floor, missing her leg by only a hair’s breadth as she pulled her leg in under the bed. She pulled Cassidy against her chest and huddled into the corner where the wall met the floor underneath the built-in log-frame bed.
In a screaming frenzy, he brought the ax down repeatedly, breaking the thick logs of the bed frame apart as he unloaded his fury into it. Chips flew in every direction. Cassidy screamed, burying her head in Mary’s chest and sobbing. Mary sobbed as well, clinging to her daughter, putting her body between her daughter and the lunatic.
She heard and felt the bed crumbling above her and she closed her eyes and waited for that final blow that would be coming at any moment.
“Please don’t hurt Cassidy! Please don’t hurt my baby! I’ll get her out of L.A. I’ll feed her better. I promise! Please, Bobby, please! Think of your father! Think of your mother!”
Chapter Twenty
Bobby tore away the last protection above his quarry and raised the ax above his head.
One fatal blow from his ax and he would put an end to Mary Gordon and he could either go further away with Cassidy, or maybe just kill her. He wasn’t sure which, but it seemed that the current living situation was ending. Maybe he’d go to Canada. He closed h
is eyes and prepared for the final blow.
He couldn’t do it. As angry as he had become, he simply couldn’t take her life. He remembered the sick feeling of carrying his lifeless son in his arms. He remembered the sound of the car striking the little girl in the street. He had been sick to his stomach for months after both of those situations. Neither had died by his hands, and yet, the nightmares had been horrible. And real.
When he saw Mary clinging to Cassidy, protecting her with her body, he saw the deeper love that a mother had for her child. It wasn’t her fault that the world was killing Cassidy. She was just ignorant like everyone else. Everyone was ignorant. Nobody would listen. He had to make them listen.
He turned away, strode to the door, closed it behind him, and dropped the bar into place. He looked at the ax and at his hands and then tossed it to the ground at his feet. He took the pistol from his waistband, sat down on the chopping block and thumbed the cylinder. He had fired all six shots and had not thought to buy any other rounds. He had never intended to use more of them. He had planned for one bullet for Cassidy and one for him. And a few for hunting game.
His anger had overflowed. He had nearly killed someone. I’m not a killer. What have I done? He stood, tossed the pistol aside and followed the stream until he came to the game trail. He crossed the stream and headed deeper into the forest beyond.
When he reached the ravine, he stood at the edge and heard a sound behind him.
“Bobby!” Ira shouted.
He turned around fast. “Dad! You really are here!”
“Yes, the old Eagle Scout trip that helped you to become an environmentalist. I remembered you loved this place.”
“All this time, you knew where I was?”
“Let’s just say, I had a pretty good hunch.” Ira held out his arms. “I’m going to get you some help, son.”
“What do you mean?”
“A facility. I’m going to find one and get a lawyer and help you get into a facility, instead of to prison again.”
“They’ll never go for that,” Bobby said, and stepped off the cliff edge into the ravine.
Chapter Twenty-one
Mary continued to sob and cling to Cassidy for a long time after Bobby had closed the door behind him.
She had heard the unmistakable sound of the bar being set in place as well and she knew that they were locked in. How long would they last? How long would it be before anyone would find them? If Ira had died, he was the only one who even had a guess of where they were, and that information would die with him.
She couldn’t risk calling out to Bobby again. She couldn’t risk putting Cassidy in danger again. She stroked her hair and whispered to her.
“It’s okay, baby. It’s okay. Mommy’s here. Mommy’s here.”
She stayed curled around her daughter in the darkness of the cabin. She no longer had the will to move. She no longer cared whether she lived or died as long as Cassidy was safe. It was an hour before she even thought about moving. Cassidy’s deep breathing told her that her baby was asleep and she didn’t want to disturb her.
Mary heard the voice of Zack Donovan shouting, “All clear. Move in to the cabin! Calder, go. Graves, go!”
As she lay there in the silence, she heard a whoop-whoop sound in the distance. At first, she could not make it out and then she realized that it was the steady thumping rhythm of a helicopter. As it got closer over the cabin, she could hear the whine of the engine.
She pushed the debris that was scattered around her aside and held Cassidy against her chest as she pushed herself to a sitting position. She listened more intently as the helicopter landed. Then she heard her name and Cassidy’s name being called for the first time. As the sounds grew closer, she clutched Cassidy more tightly to her with one arm and pushed them up with the other.
She heard them calling more clearly now. They were very near. They were just outside. She pounded on the door.
“In here! We’re in here!” she screamed. They’d never hear her over the racket that was going on outside. “We’re in here!” She heard a voice on the other side of the door.
“Mary Gordon?”
“Yes!”
“Is Cassidy with you?”
“Yes! Don’t shoot, Agent Calder. We’re alone!”
She heard the bar on the door being lifted and the heavy door swung open.
That smug Agent Calder stood in front of them with his weapon in his hand. He pulled them through the door and pushed them aside into the waiting arms of Agent Graves, who rushed them away to safety.
Moments later, Agent Calder reemerged.
“It’s all clear in there.”
“That’s what I said,” Mary said. She fought the temptation to roll her eyes at Agent Calder.
“I’m Agent Emily Graves. Do you remember me?”
Mary nodded. She had been in her home the day Cassidy disappeared.
“Did he hurt either of you?” Graves asked. “Are you both okay?”
“Yes, we’re okay.” Mary sobbed. “We’re fine.”
If she thought the floodgates had burst open before, she discovered that there was a great deal more left in them as she realized that it was all over and they were safe. With agents surrounding them and circling out into the woods, she knew that no one would be able to harm them. The chopper overhead reinforced the all-out effort to protect her and her baby.
“Do you know where Bobby Rabb went?” Agent Calder asked her. His oily face and garlic breath was only inches away from hers.
“No. I don’t even know when he left.”
“Not a problem. You’re safe now. Let’s get you out of here.”
He turned aside to discuss something with Agent Graves, and then turned back to her again.
“There’s a problem. We really can’t get the chopper in here to lift you out because we need to get Ira Rabb to a hospital.”
“That’s good.”
“It wouldn’t be my preference, but Special Agent Zack Donovan just pulled rank on me and the helicopter is commandeered for Ira Rabb’s trip to the hospital.”
She smiled because then she knew that Zack was safe. “Like I said, that’s good.”
“We may have to walk you out. Can you do that?”
Mary smiled. She had walked in. She had endured days and days without her baby and she had survived a madman with a pistol and an ax. She would joyfully walk out of the national forest and meet Zack at his vehicle.
“I can walk out and I will carry my daughter if necessary.”
“Good. All right, everybody, form up. Graves, you walk point. Let’s go.”
The first steps away from the cabin and on the way back home were the sweetest steps Mary had ever taken in her life.
Cassidy was safe in her arms and now, Mary would never let her go.
Chapter Twenty-two
Mary held Cassidy’s hand as they walked down the hospital corridor, checking the numbers beside each of the room doors.
The sounds of all sorts of machines and monitors created the background noise—the quiet conversations of doctors and nurses conversing at the nurse’s station were a significant change from the extremes of silence and noise they had endured in the past twenty-four hours.
Cassidy had been checked out thoroughly and it was determined that she was in perfect health with just a few incidental bruises and scratches, which were considered normal for a seven-year-old child. They determined that she had not been molested or physically abused.
Mary breathed a huge sigh of relief, and hugged her daughter.
Fresh from Cassidy’s discharge from the emergency room, they headed for Ira’s room in the ICU.
When they got to ICU, Mary heard soft voices on the other side of the door and wondered if she should come back another time. Perhaps, the patient was in the middle of an exam. She started to turn and walk away.
“It’s all right, honey,” a voice said behind her. “You can go on in. You won’t disturb anything. He keeps asking for you two.�
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Mary hesitated a moment and then decided to go on in. Agents Calder and Graves were both in the room, each seated on either side of Ira Rabb. They both stood when Mary and Cassidy entered. The two agents smiled at Mary and Cassidy.
“Oh, I’m sorry. We can come back,” Mary said.
“No, it’s not a problem. Come on in.”
Agent Calder waved his arm for them to come further into the room.
“Why, look who’s here. Two of the prettiest ladies I know.” Ira Rabb, though he was attached to several machines—some providing nutrients and medications and other monitoring various vitals—looked much healthier than he had when he left Mary.
“Dr. Rabb,” Mary smiled. “Let me introduce you to my daughter, Cassidy.”
“Well…aren’t you a beauty,” he beamed, the wetness of tears was beginning to form in his pale eyes. “You came to see your…Uncle Ira?” He reached out to take her into his arms, but Cassidy turned away.
“He’s okay, baby,” she said. “This man helped Mommy find you. Don’t you want to tell him thank you?”
Cassidy shook her head. Mary reached down and scooped her up.
“It’s okay, honey, you don’t have to go to him. You can stay right here in my arms and tell him thank you.”
“Thank you,” Cassidy repeated from the safety of her mother’s arms and hid her face in her mother’s neck.
“You’re very welcome, Cassidy.”
Tears spilled over the rims of his eyes and made a trail down his thick cheeks.
Calder said, “Agent Graves and I will leave you all alone. Dr. Rabb, we will be discussing things with you further later this afternoon.”
“I understand,” Ira replied.
As the agents moved to exit the hospital room, Mary stopped Agent Calder.
“Is Dr. Rabb in trouble?”
“He might be, ma’am.”