“On some relationships,” Susan said, “but not on all.”
“Clearly,” Alex replied. “So how did you and Little Miss Psychopath come to be BFF’s?”
“Mmmmmm, as luck would have it our stars aligned and we met on the beach,” Susan said. “It was paradise. Tatiana is an amazing lover and a wonderful mentor.”
“Awww, how romantic,” Alex said. “Hopefully when this is all over I can arrange for the two of you to get the bridal suite at the prison.”
“That sounds good, and I’m sure you believe it, but the truth is that the future is looking rather bleak for you right now.”
“Maybe, but I also get the sense that there is something else going on here,” Alex replied. “I mean if it was simply a matter of wanting to get rid of me then it makes no sense to kidnap me.”
Susan stared at Alex and she could see the tension in the young woman’s face, the muscles rippling along her jaw, as she clenched her teeth. The faux sweetness was gone now, replaced by a darkness that chased away her prettiness in favor of something that resembled pure evil. At that moment, most people would have been gripped by a sense of fear, as they felt an icy chill run through them, but Alex only felt an opportunity being presented to her.
“You see, Susan, you normally just kill people you don’t want around and yet here I am. So there’s probably another reason why I’m not lying in a ditch somewhere.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Susan said angrily.
Now Alex knew that she had the woman exactly where she wanted her, the point where she was beginning to question things.
“I just mean that it makes no sense,” Alex replied “Experience tells me that there must be more to the plan; perhaps something you might not even be privy to. I mean there has to be a reason why I’m still among the living. Don’t you at least wonder why that is?”
“Shut up,” Susan said.
“Why? Did I hit a nerve, cupcake?” Alex asked. “Am I sensing a bit of jealousy?”
“Jealous? Me? Of you?” Susan said with a laugh. “I don’t think so. I mean, don’t get me wrong, you’re good looking for your age, but don’t flatter yourself.”
“Perhaps,” Alex said, “but the truth is that you can only speak for yourself. The last time I looked there was another person here.”
“Tatiana and I are just fine,” Susan replied. “Maybe she just wants to make you suffer a bit longer before she ends your miserable life.”
Susan had taken the bait and now it was time to set the hook.
“Maybe making me suffer isn’t exactly what she has in mind,” Alex said. “I mean the last time Patty Ann and I were together she seemed to have,…… Hmmm, how shall I say this delicately, more pleasurable things on her mind?”
Alex watched as the young woman’s eyes went wide and the color drained from the face. The darkness was gone now, replaced with a pained look that was more akin to having been sucker-punched. A painful silence hung in the room, as Susan desperately tried to process what she had just been told.
“Wait,…… What,…...” Susan asked stunned, the words coming out a bit choppy. “What did you just say?”
“Just that she seemed to have more pleasurable things in mind.”
“No,….. No,….” She stammered. “What did you call her?”
“Patty Ann?” Alex replied with feigned innocence. “That’s her name, isn’t it?”
“How the fuck do you know her name?” Susan replied angrily.
“What, Patty never told you about us?”
“Us?....... What fucking Us?
“Oh, baby, I’m so sorry,” Alex said, with manufactured empathy. “I thought you already knew. It’s just that Patty, I mean Tatiana, and I go way back.”
“How way back?” Susan asked
“Before you, I’m afraid, but I am sure it’s nothing; all water under the bridge, as they say. Although, I’m not exactly sure why she wouldn’t have told you?”
“What did you guys do?” Susan asked.
Alex could tell from the look on her face what she was thinking. The green-eyed monster had already made its appearance in her head and Susan had begun to fill in the blanks. Jealousy in the head of any woman was bad enough, but in the formative mind of a young girl it was downright dangerous.
“You really don’t want to hear all the sordid details,” Alex replied, “and it’s really not my place to kiss and tell. You’re better off asking her yourself. I don’t want to get between you two love birds.”
“Fuck you,” Susan said angrily, as she forced the gag back into Alex’s mouth and pulled the hood back over her head. “Enjoy your remaining time alive, Chief. When the time comes you can be certain that you’ll be staring into my eyes as I put an end your miserable little life, bitch.”
A moment later Alex heard the angry slamming of the door, following by the metallic sound of the lock closing.
Well, that went remarkably easy, she thought.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Hutch took a sip of coffee then glanced over at the car’s digital clock display, as he and Abby sat in the radio car over at the Earlton International Airport.
It seemed to him a bit of a stretch to call the single, gravel runway location an airport, let alone an international one, but the occasional flights in and out of Canada probably qualified it as such. Still the place seemed more suited for the single-prop type of planes than anything you’d see in a traditional airport. For the moment, it would serve its purpose nicely.
They’d selected the airport for two reasons. Number one it was far enough away from Penobscot that it wouldn’t attract any attention and number two it was a suitable landing place near to where the last ping was received from Alex’s cell phone.
“They did say six o’clock right?” Hutch asked.
“Yeah,” Abby replied, “but I guess even helicopters can get delayed in traffic.”
“I guess,” Hutch replied. “You don’t think I did anything wrong by calling him, do you?”
“Who? Maguire?”
“Yeah, I mean if this turns out to be nothing, and she did just go for a hike, she’s going to kill me.”
“No she’s not,” Abby replied. “Under the circumstances I think it was completely reasonable. Didn’t you say he agreed with you that it didn’t feel right?”
“He did, but still……”
“Don’t over analyze it, Hutch. You’re acting chief and you did what you thought was prudent to do. Besides, it was his idea to send someone up to look at things.”
“I know, but I’m acting only till we find her,” he replied. “I just hope I’m not unemployed after we do.”
“Stop it, Hutch. You know Alex would never do that. Besides, she actually does like you.”
“How do you know?” he asked.
“We talk,” Abby said. “It’s a girl thing. Now if you don’t mind, I need a cigarette.”
Abby got out of the car, walked around to the front, and leaned on the fender, as she fished out the pack of cigarettes from her shirt pocket. A moment later, Hutch joined her.
“I’m sure you’re right,” he replied. “I guess I just don’t want her to think I’m a screw-up.”
“Let’s just focus on finding her first,” Abby said. “She has to be here in order to be angry.”
“With all this stress maybe I should take up smoking too.”
“You probably should wait.”
“Why?”
“Because if Alex does fire you; you won’t be able to afford them.”
“That’s not funny,” Hutch replied.
“No, it was pretty funny,” Abby said with a laugh.
Just then the quiet evening air was interrupted by the faint thump, thump, thump of a helicopter, as it approached the airport, its roar growing louder with each passing second.
Hutch and Abby watched as the big Sikorsky S92 cleared the end of the field and began its approach to the helicopter landing pad.
“Wow, talk
about arriving in style,” Hutch said.
“Must be nice,” Abby replied. “Maybe we can talk Sheldon into buying one for us.”
“I don’t think he’d even spring for a photo of one to hang on our wall.”
“This is true.”
As they watched, the helicopter set down effortlessly on the small pad and they heard the whine of the engines as they began to throttle down.
“God, I hope whoever he sent isn’t an arrogant prick,” Hutch said. “I’ve seen how they are on television and I’d hate to be treated like some dumb redneck cop.”
Abby turned to look at him with a frown on her face. “Are you serious? You’re being stereotypical about city cops because of the stereotypical performance of Hollywood actors?”
“Be nice to me,” he said. “I’m having a tough week.”
Abby was about to say something when they saw the door open on the helicopter and a small set of stairs unfold. A moment later a man appeared in the doorway and stepped down.
He had dark hair and a swarthy complexion, which Abby figured made him Italian or at least from some other Mediterranean country. Ironically, he looked like he had stepped out of a Hollywood casting call for the stereotypical hot police detective.
God, please don’t let Hutch be right, she thought.
She was about to walk forward to greet the man, when another person appeared in the doorway and she let out a gasp, immediately feeling her knees go slightly weak.
“Holy shit, is that……? ”
“Yes,…..” Abby said softly, as she continued to stare at the man coming down the stairs. “Yes it is.”
“Hi, I’m Angelo Antonucci,” the first man said, as he approached them.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Chris Hutchinson,” Hutch replied, shaking the man’s hand. “This is Abby Simpson.”
“Hi,” Abby said with a smile, as she shook his hand, even as her eyes peered past him at the other man approaching them.
In the beginning, she had thought that Alex was exaggerating about just how good looking he was, so she had checked out some photos online and found out she wasn’t lying. Never did she expect that the photos of Maguire wouldn’t even do him justice.
“Nice to meet you,” Antonucci said, as he stepped to the side. “This is Police Commissioner Maguire.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Commissioner,” Hutch said, shaking the man’s hand. “I’m Chris Hutchinson, we spoke on the phone. I just wish it was under different circumstances, sir.”
“Likewise, Chris,” Maguire replied.
“Oh, please, call me Hutch,” he said, “and this is Abby Simpson.”
“Pleasure to meet you, Abby,” Maguire said, taking her hand in his.
For a brief moment Abby was mesmerized, as she stared up into the most amazing blue eyes she had ever seen, and then realized she hadn’t responded.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I was just thinking about something,” she said. “It’s very nice to meet you as well. Alex speaks very highly of you.”
“Only believe half of everything Alex says about me,” Maguire said with a laugh.
“Oh, it’s all good,” Abby replied.
“Well then, if it’s all good, believe even less.”
“Where would you like to go first, sir?” Hutch asked.
“It’s your show, Ang,” Maguire said, deferring to Antonucci. “I signed on to be Detective Antonucci’s assistant on this one, but the truth is I just needed some fresh air.”
“Well, we have plenty of that up here,” Hutch replied.
“I know it’s late,” Antonucci said, “but can we go and take a look at the area where the last cell phone ping was picked up at?”
“Sure thing,” Hutch replied, as he motioned them toward the waiting car. “It’s just down the road.”
They loaded their bags into the trunk of the car and got inside. Fifteen minutes later Hutch pulled the radio car onto the shoulder of a particularly desolate stretch of Route 26.
“Here we are,” he said, putting the car in park. “Not much to see, but the tower is just over there.”
Antonucci got out of the car and acclimated himself to his new surroundings. The cell phone tower sat out in a large, empty farm field, about fifty yards from the two lane road. He did a three hundred and sixty degree turn, taking in his surroundings, but there was little if anything to be seen. There were no visible signs of any homes or other structures from what he could make out.
“How far away from here does the chief live?” he asked.
“About a half hour drive in that direction,” Abby replied, gesturing with her hand toward the east.
“Without sounding too much like a city-slicker, are there some areas around here that are more prone to hiking than others?”
“If you’re asking whether she would need to drive to one, then the answer is no,” Hutch chimed in. “Her house is out in the country, almost at the base of Mt. Moriah, so she could actually walk out her front door and start hiking.”
“So the odds are pretty good that when the ping came in she was probably on the road and not walking.”
“Yeah, but her car is still in her garage,” Abby said.
“Could someone have picked her up?”
Hutch and Abby looked at one another. It was a question neither of them had truly considered.
“To be honest, Alex doesn’t really have many non-cop friends out here,” Hutch said, “and those she has I wouldn’t consider as being the hiking type.”
“What about the non-hiking types?” Antonucci asked. “I mean we’re all adults here. Could she have simply gone off with someone to get away?”
“There’s only one person here that she would go off with,” Abby said, glancing over at Maguire, “but I really don’t think that happened.”
“Why?” Antonucci asked.
“Because he and Alex supposedly got into an argument last night,” Hutch replied.
“Oh really,” Antonucci said. “Has anyone spoken to him?”
“We spoke to him earlier today,” Hutch said. “He seemed pretty upset about the whole thing.”
“You mean Peter Bates?” Maguire asked.
“You know him, boss?” Antonucci asked.
“Yes and no, Ang,” Maguire replied. “He came to my house last Christmas with Alex. He seemed like a pretty stand-up guy from what I could tell. I guess you could say they’re dating.”
“They are,” Abby said, “but it’s sort of an on-again, off-again thing relationship.”
“Why is that?” Antonucci asked.
Abby glanced over at Maguire wondering what she was supposed to say. That Alex couldn’t commit to anyone because she was still hung up on her old partner?
“Because Alex isn’t exactly the easiest person to get along with,” Maguire replied.
Antonucci took the moment in, knowing that there was something missing from the equation and it appeared to be intentional. Clearly there was more to the story, but he would need to tread with caution. It did after all involve his bosses’ old partner.
“What did he tell you?” Antonucci asked.
“Just that he was concerned about her, because of the shooting, and that he went out to check on her. He said that she’d been drinking and was being a bit belligerent. So he just decided to leave and deal with things when she had sobered up. Before he could come back out we talked to him.”
“How did he seem to you?”
“Concerned, upset,” Hutch replied. “I understand why you’re asking, but Dr. Bates is a really nice guy.”
“I’m sure he is,” Antonucci replied. “Unfortunately, experience has shown me that nice people still do bad things to other nice people, even the ones they love.”
“I understand,” Hutch replied. “I guess that’s why I asked for help.”
“Well, before we go rounding up folks for interrogations; let’s see where the evidence leads us first,” Antonucci said.
He gazed around at the empty thoroughfare,
checking in both directions.
“I guess it would be too much to ask if they have traffic cameras on this roadway?”
Hutch looked at Antonucci, then at the road, and finally back at him.
“We’re lucky to have any traffic,” he replied with a laugh.
“Point taken,” Antonucci replied.
“So if she was traveling west on this road, what’s the first town she would hit?”
“Earlton,” Abby said. “The airport is back there; we just took the back road to get here.”
“Can we go and take a look at the town?”
“Sure,” Hutch replied.
A few minutes later they drove into the sleepy little town and Hutch pulled the car into the parking lot of a closed tractor dealership.
“Welcome to Earlton,” Hutch said, stepping out of the car.
“It’s certainly quaint,” Maguire said, as he glanced around at the main drag.
“Population of just over eight hundred people,” Abby replied. “It’s actually pretty large for this area.”
“On the plus side, it shouldn’t take too long to survey,” Antonucci replied.
“Mind if I join you,” Hutch asked.
“Not at all,” Antonucci replied.
“How do these towns even stay alive?” Maguire asked, as he watched the two men walk off.
“Most of them survive off the summer rental markets,” Abby explained, as she leaned against the car’s fender and lit up a cigarette. “The town’s residential population may be small, but the area around here is dotted with tons of summer rental places. So the overall population will easily double, if not triple, come July and August.”
“Excuse my ignorance, but what’s the attraction?” Maguire asked. “I mean it’s beautiful and everything, but why here?”
Abby laughed. “It’s hard for city folks to understand.
“Actually, I was raised in a place not much bigger than this,” Maguire replied, “but we had a major waterway, winter skiing and an Air Force base to explain the draw.”
“I apologize,” Abby said. “I never would have pegged you for a country boy.”
“Shhhhh……” Maguire said with a smile. “We all have our secrets.”
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