by D. K. Hood
“Really? Are you some kind of jerk?” Ella’s eyes flashed with anger. “Do you honestly believe anyone would put themselves knowingly in danger like that? He had an ax, or hatchet or whatever. I’m just not that brave, sorry.”
Concerned the woman was suffering from PTSD, he nodded. “That’s fine. You mentioned planning to stay with Sky’s parents. If they are still willing to have you, are you willing to remain with them until we find Sky? Right now, we would prefer you to stay in town. We’ll need you to identify the man who attacked her.”
“Yeah, I know Sky’s family and I’d like to be here to find out what happened to her.” She sighed. “I don’t really want to stay alone in my brother’s apartment.”
Kane folded his notebook and pushed it with his pen into his pocket. “Okay, I’ll speak to the doctor and call in on Mrs. Paul. Thank you for your help.”
“Find Sky.” Ella lifted her chin.
Kane opened the door and glanced at her. “I’ll do my best.”
In the hallway, he nodded to the deputy on duty outside Ella’s door and made his way out through the security doors. He ran into an angry man, who introduced himself as Sky’s father.
“What are you doing about my daughter and why can’t I see Ella?” Mr. Paul’s face turned a nasty shade of purple. “What the hell is going on here?”
Kane dropped his voice to just above a whisper. He’d discovered long ago that people tended to quieten down to listen if he spoke softly. “The sheriff has search and rescue out looking for her and we have a BOLO out on her and her vehicle. We are waiting for people to call in sightings. At this moment, we don’t have any suspects but the sheriff has every resource working on the case. Ella is currently in protective custody but as soon as I speak to the sheriff, I’ll see if we can make arrangements with the doctor to have her released into your care, if you like?”
“Damn sure, I’d like.” Mr. Paul glared at him. “It’s bad enough my daughter is missing, maybe murdered, but believing Ella is involved is crazy.”
Kane pulled out his cellphone and waved it at him. “Just give me five.”
He walked out of earshot and called Jenna. “I’ve spoken to Ella Tate. She’s a strange one and displayed mood swings but that could be due to PTSD. She is defensive and angry. That’s not the usual behavior I’d expect to see in a person who has just murdered their best friend and I can’t imagine how she managed to hide both body and vehicle without a trace.” He sighed. “I pushed her buttons but her story didn’t change from her statement and I asked questions from all angles. I doubt she’s involved. I believe it happened like she said and I don’t figure she is a flight risk.”
“I’m not sure we should cut her entirely loose just yet. She is the only witness.” Jenna’s voice sounded husky from her cold. “Sky’s mother called and I gave her an update on the search for Sky. She is anxious to speak to Ella. She can’t understand why we’re keeping her at the hospital without visitors. I guess if you’re convinced Ella is telling the truth, we can let her go on the proviso she stays with the Pauls.”
“Sky’s father is here now and willing to take her.” Kane leaned against the cold wall and stared into space. “Do you want me to speak to the doctor and see if she’s okay to leave?”
“No, that’s okay, Wolfe spoke to him already. Ella is physically good to go but from what Wolfe said about her, he suggested she should see a shrink.” Jenna cleared her throat. “He’s already arranged for her discharge from the hospital. All you need to do is send the Blackwater deputies home and explain the terms of release to Mr. Paul.”
“Roger that.” He rubbed his chin. “Did you ask Wolfe what tests the doc wanted done on you?”
“Not yet. If you’re dropping by his office maybe, you can ask him. Tell him I said it was okay. Then I think you should head home. Rowley and Walters have everything covered at the office. Nothing is happening in town, everyone is inside waiting for the next blizzard. Rowley diverted the media and BOLO hotline calls to my cellphone.” She sighed. “If Rowley gets stuck in town he can get to his home from the office and we can handle the horses tonight.”
Kane smiled. It was as if she was reading his mind. A persistent pain throbbed in his head and his knee ached after the long walk—not that he would admit it. “I can manage alone. I’ll grab some comfort food on the way home from Aunt Betty’s Café; the cold weather makes me hungry.”
“I can hear your stomach rumbling from here.” Jenna chuckled. “See you later.”
Twelve
Somewhere in the darkness, Sky could hear someone humming. The return to consciousness was immediate and she recognized the hiss and beep of machines. Fear and sheer panic grabbed her as she remembered the man who’d kidnapped her. Hopelessness surrounded her. She had to tell someone and staying conscious was her only hope. Sensing someone close by, she did not attempt to move and until she discovered who it was, playing possum was her only advantage.
She lifted her eyelids a crack and could see a male nurse in theatre scrubs bending over her. He lifted one of her arms and washed it. After drying it, he placed it back down before continuing to bathe her in a professional manner. Okay, I can deal with a sponge bath. With infinite care not to cause attention, she moved her gaze down her body, surprised to see the sides of the bed missing and the restraints from her wrists.
Her heart picked up a beat and she could hear the monitor beeps increasing in speed. The nurse would notice she had woken and give her more zombie drugs. She forced her muscles to relax and the beeps slowed a little. Too late: he stopped humming and examined her face. Panic gripped her as he moved along the side of the bed, wiping a warm cloth over her chest. It took every ounce of her willpower but she managed to keep her breathing slow and steady.
The nurse dried her, pulled down her hospital gown and covered her with a blanket. He picked up his things and headed for the door. The room fell into darkness with only the glow from the machines lighting the room. Trembling with the thought of enduring the taunting of her kidnapper again, she waited until the nurse’s footsteps faded and turned her head to look at the bed beside her. It was empty, stripped down to the mattress. The young woman with the pink fingernails had gone. She eased up onto one elbow, then sat up slowly. Her head ached and she touched her face, running her fingers over the lump on her cheek. Her nose hurt and she recalled the blast of pain in the car. The memory of that night slammed into her. The man they’d stopped to help had hit her then thrown her onto the side of the highway. She recalled crawling along the frozen grass calling out for Ella. Where is Ella?
A wave of dizziness rolled over her and the monitors made strange sounds. What if she set off an alarm and alerted the nurse? I have to get to a phone and call my mom. She slid off the bed onto wobbly legs and scanned the room. The machines would be easy to silence; all she had to do was turn them off at the wall. Then she noticed the machine attached to the needle in her arm. She had seen one of those before, when her grandma was ill. Without a second thought, she dragged the needle out of her arm. The sticky connectors went next. Free to move around, she found a tiny flashlight used for examinations and made her way to the door using the wall for support.
After peering into the shadowy hallway and listening for a moment, she eased outside. The place was as silent as a tomb and so cold. Using the flashlight, she crept along the hallway and came to a room. Terrified of finding someone inside, she pressed her ear to the door. No sound came from within and no light shone under the door. She took a deep breath, gripped the door handle and turned.
The door swung open to reveal a small kitchenette. Metal cupboards, like lockers, along one wall and a table and chairs in the center. A clock on the wall told her it was a little after five. She turned and made her way back to the hallway. Shadows seemed to loom up around the small beam of light as she made her way slowly into the unknown. Anyone could be there in the blackness, watching her and waiting to drag her back to her room.
With her heart poundin
g as if it might burst, she moved slowly, step by step, through the gloomy building. The small flashlight slid along the hallway, turning shadows into imaginary men trying to grab her. She hated the dark and the complete lack of windows made the passageway close in on her. A rush of panic hit her in a nauseous wave and she leaned against the cold wall, breathing out great puffs of steam. The idea of being underground without escape terrified her.
At the end of the hall, she stumbled through the open door of a small office but no phone sat on the desk. Disbelief and dismay twisted her gut with every step. Nothing resembled a hospital. No windows, no wards and the only thing the same was the antiseptic smell. There was no way out, no stairs or doors, and her only choice was to keep moving along the hallway. An icy chill underfoot made her shiver and her feet ached with the cold. Her footsteps seemed to echo off the walls and anyone close by would hear her. The pulse beating loud in her ears throbbed in time with the pain in her head but she kept going.
The flashlight hit two large aluminum swing doors and the sight of her reflection made her jump back. With no other exit in sight, surely the way out had to be through there. She pushed on the doors and peered into the gloom. The room had a peculiar smell. She eased inside and allowed the doors to swing shut behind her then lifted the flashlight.
The beam moved over a gurney covered with a lumpy white sheet. She took a few steps closer—and froze. Terror gripped her by the throat. She couldn’t breathe. From one side of the gurney hung a thin pale arm. Unable to move, Sky trembled as she moved the flashlight down the arm, over a limp hand… to the bright pink fingernails.
Thirteen
After speaking with the manager of the Blackwater Roadhouse, Jenna discovered the argument between Sky and Ella had been so loud they’d been asked to leave. The thought of Sky driving when she was mad worried her. Perhaps the argument had clouded the young woman’s judgement when she’d decided to stop to help the man who had apparently broken down. In Ella’s statement, she had begged her not to stop but to call a tow truck. She scanned her notes on the case for a moment then followed the smell of freshly brewed coffee into the kitchen. To her delight, Kane had set up the coffee maker before he left to tend the horses with Rowley.
She opened the refrigerator door and caught sight of a number of plastic containers with the Aunt Betty’s Café logo on the tops and each marked with their contents. It would seem Kane had overruled her decision to cook dinner and collected enough takeout to feed the three of them for a few days. The sound of a vehicle approaching caught her attention and she closed the door and made her way to the front of the house. Under the floodlights, she recognized the ME’s truck. What’s Wolfe doing here?
When Emily jumped from the vehicle and scooted off toward the stable, Jenna pulled open the front door and waited for Wolfe to climb the steps onto the porch. “Emily is in a hurry, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong, she wanted to ask Kane something, is all.” Wolfe stamped away the snow, wiped his feet, stepped inside and removed his boots. “I spoke to him before. He said it would be okay.” He shrugged out of his coat.
Jenna took it and hung it on a peg. “Come into the kitchen. The coffee is just about ready.” She led the way.
“Great. I needed to discuss a few things with you in private.” Wolfe dropped into a chair facing the door and leaned on the kitchen table. “I’ll cut to the chase before the others arrive. You asked me to give Kane the details of the tests the doctor ordered but as they are very specific and personal, I figured I should speak to you personally.”
Perplexed, Jenna poured the coffee, added the fixings for both cups and placed them on the table. She dropped into a chair and looked at him. “The doc said she was looking for ‘nasties’ so I gather she wanted to eliminate anything unusual.”
“Like HIV, hepatitis, syphilis and herpes?” Wolfe turned his coffee cup in circles and met her gaze. “She did an HLA test as well, and blood group.” He sighed. “I would expect a full blood count, iron levels, vitamin B12 maybe, but not the others.”
Jenna leaned back in her chair. “Maybe she thinks I’m promiscuous.”
“You have the opposite reputation, Jenna.” Wolfe frowned. “The HLA test is at genetic level, which set my alarm bells ringing. You may have a different face and name but nothing changes your DNA. And the people you were involved with have a sample of it.” He looked at her. “I know it was Viktor Carlos. I worked with the team hacking his organization. We took you out of play when we discovered he had one of his people hacking databases searching for you and they included a DNA profile.”
A wave of nausea hit Jenna. After so long could there really be someone left alive in Viktor Carlos’s cartel searching for her? As DEA Undercover Agent Avril Parker, she had exposed his racket and sent him to jail. A couple of years later a rival underworld organization had wiped out his entire gang. She gaped at Wolfe in disbelief. “You knew all this and didn’t tell me?”
“My information was that every member of his cartel was dead.” Wolfe sipped his coffee but his gray eyes never left her face. “Problem is, when something like this happens, we have to figure his family has started up again. A son or maybe a cousin and you know they’ll carry a vendetta against someone for many years. You went deep into their organization, didn’t you? They trusted you.”
Memories like bad dreams flooded into her mind. She had given everything and almost lost her soul bringing down a monster. How would she ever forget? She nodded. “Yeah, they trusted me like one of the family.”
“I know how difficult that must have been, Jenna.” He cleared his throat. “I know you married his brother and had blood tests done, right?”
“Yeah, did you have to remind me? I only survived because I knew it wasn’t real. They treated their wives like property, or brood mares. If he’d found my stash of contraceptive pills, he would have killed me.” Realization hit her like a sledgehammer. “Oh, Jesus, their family doctor did blood tests.”
“And has your DNA profile.” Wolfe placed his cup on the table. “I’ll give Doctor Mavis Weaver’s name to my contact and have her checked out. Do you remember the name of the doctor you went to see back then?”
“No. I don’t remember him telling me his name.” Jenna chewed on her fingers. “Can you hide the DNA results from her?”
“Yeah, I plan to but if this is who we think it is I wouldn’t have gotten all the blood.” Wolfe frowned at her. “She would have sent it away for a second test and right now I can’t find out where she sent it. From now on, Jenna, no blood tests unless I do them, okay?”
“Sure. I didn’t think. I’ve slipped into this life so well, I forgot about my past.” The front door opened and she could hear voices. “Does Kane know the details of my mission?”
“No, and he won’t hear them from me, although he has clearance.” He reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “He’s a good man and you know by now you can trust him with your life. It wouldn’t hurt to explain the potential threat without going into details. Maybe beef up the security around here. Leave it with me; I’ll get someone from HQ to come out.” He withdrew his hand. “I’ll keep you advised.”
“Hi, Jenna.” Emily strolled into the room, cheeks rosy from the cold. “How are you feeling? You still look pale.”
Jenna forced a smile. “I’m fine. I’m going back to work on Wednesday.”
She noticed Kane’s concerned expression and sighed. There is no way I can keep all this from him. He knows, just by looking at me, that something is wrong.
Fourteen
Shocked, Sky gaped at the gurney, unable to move. Her chest tightened, making it difficult to breathe. A faint whistling some distance away snapped her back into action. She turned and moved the flashlight along the wall, searching for a place to hide. An exit close to the gurney had a card scanner fixed to the wall to one side of it. Her legs shook with fear. The whistling was coming from behind that door. The beam slid over a huge aluminum refrigerator, then a g
lass-topped entrance came into view. She crept across the floor and pushed into the room. A strong smell of antiseptic hit her and, terrified at what she might find inside, she sucked in a trembling breath then scanned the area with the flashlight.
The room contained a sink and, on one side, a floor-to-ceiling cupboard with a sliding door took up the entire wall. It opened silently and she peered inside. Blankets and sheets filled the shelves alongside containers of different sizes. She grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around herself, then wedged herself into a small space beside a broom. After turning off the flashlight, she shut herself inside.
The whistling had gotten louder by the second. Panic gripped her, twisting her belly into knots. If her kidnapper had come to kill her, he would find her bed empty and start searching. Her knees trembled so hard, she had to squeeze them together to stop them rattling against the door. The whistling was closer now. She peeked through a crack in the cupboard and stopped breathing. From her position, she could see the red light on the front of the refrigerator in the other room.
A beam of light burst through the exit and the next moment the lights came on. She recognized the big man at once as the man who had kidnapped her. He wore the same black hoodie covering his face. The whistling stopped for a few seconds as he pinned the door back and went to collect the gurney. He pushed the woman’s body through the exit and into the hallway. As he moved away, the whistling started again and Sky could hear his footsteps and the squeak of the gurney’s wheels echoing in the distance.
The open door was a way out and her one chance to escape. Moving as quietly as possible, she left her hiding place and crept across the room and out into the hallway. Ahead, the passageway went straight for a few yards then made a sharp turn to the left. Icy coldness seeped through the blanket and her short panting breaths sent clouds of steam into the air. Panic-stricken that the man would be back soon, she slid the flashlight into the pocket of the scrubs and pulled the blanket over her head. The way out had to be close by but she figured if she could hear him, the moment he stopped whistling, he would be able to hear her as well. She clenched her jaw and followed him.