by D. K. Hood
Reaching the corner, she edged her way along the wall and took a quick peek. The man was nowhere in sight but she could see an open door to the outside and snow piled up on each side. Rather than the crisp clean air she expected, a heavy odor hung in the air.
A loud whirring sound followed by the unmistakable noise of heavy machinery blasted her ears. Not caring if she made a noise, she sprinted for the open door, then flattened her body against the wall and looked outside. Snow had lightly dusted a cleared walkway lit by a row of lights. She could make out footprints and the imprint from the wheels of the gurney. On one side was a high brick wall that ended some yards ahead. She had no choice but to see where the pathway came out. With her heartbeat thrashing in her ears, she ran slipping and sliding along the path, using one hand on the wall for support.
The grinding noise had gotten louder and a stench like death wafted toward her. She reached the end of the wall and froze on the spot. Not ten yards away the man was hoisting the naked body of a young woman onto a conveyer belt. The wide belt carried the woman to an opening in a huge machine with whirring blades like a wood chipper.
Horrified, Sky pushed her knuckles against her mouth to stop a scream of protest. Black spots danced before her eyes and she blinked, not believing what she was seeing. As the body moved slowly into the gaping maw of the machine, she gagged at the terrible noise and vomited bile.
Trembling with fear and disgust, she backed into the cover of shadows and took in her surroundings. She had to get away. On the left, walls rose out of the shadows, dark like a prison. Ahead, a frosty path led to a parking lot not twenty yards away. A white pickup with the windshield thick with ice sat all alone, and beyond it the safety of darkness. Could she make it there before the man had finished his ghoulish task?
After taking one, quick look at him, she took off at a run. Great clouds of steam escaped her lips as she gasped in freezing air. Unable to get traction on the ice, she made it a few yards before the sound of heavy footsteps thundered behind her.
He had seen her.
She screamed and, lungs bursting, ran for her life. The parking lot had a low fence, snow piled on poles connected with loops of ice-covered chain. The footsteps crunched behind her and she screamed again, the frigid air burning her throat. He grabbed at her, tearing the blanket from her shoulders.
“Give up. You can’t get away from me.” She recognized the voice of the man who’d kidnapped her. “Come easy or I’ll finish you right now.”
Sky glanced over one shoulder and glared at him. “Get away from me. I saw what you did.” She ran at the fence, leaping over the chain.
She landed hard on her knees, sliding across the ice, but scrambled up again and tried to run. He was on her in seconds. Pain slammed into her head and the metallic taste of blood spilled over her tongue. The ground came up fast and her face landed in a pile of fresh snow. Cold seeped through her thin clothes and she tried to speak but her mouth refused to work. A snowflake landed on her outstretched arm, lacy and perfect. The frozen landscape slipped into oblivion and the light around her faded. I’m going to die.
Fifteen
Tuesday
A cold crisp morning greeted Jenna and she woke feeling surprisingly well. Since she had fallen ill, Kane would tend the horses, work out and shower before knocking on her door to deliver a steaming cup of coffee. She sat up in bed, pushed the hair from her eyes and smiled at him. “You’re spoiling me. I used to wake up at five every morning and now I lounge around until it’s almost seven. It’s going to be a struggle to get up in time for work tomorrow.”
“You’ll soon drop back into your old routine.” He placed the cup on her bedside table. “Right now, you can’t work out and I have Rowley helping me tend the horses, so you don’t need to come outside in the cold and dark.” He turned to head for the door. “I’ll have breakfast ready in ten.”
“Dave.” Jenna reached for her coffee. “I didn’t get a chance to speak with you last night, with Rowley here, but a problem has come up. Wolfe gave me some info you need to know. Can you hang back after he leaves this morning so I can bring you up to date?”
“About the Sky Paul case?” Kane paused in the doorway.
Jenna shook her head. “No, this is personal.”
“You’re not ill, are you?” Concern etched Kane’s expression. “If so, I have time now. He’s at the cottage.”
“I’m fine. This is something from before we met.” Jenna gave him what she hoped was a meaningful look. “I’ll explain later.”
“Roger that.” Kane strolled out the door.
During breakfast, Jenna discussed the daily running of the office. Apart from the Sky Paul case, her deputies had to cope with the usual day-to-day problems in town. Rowley reported a large number of vehicle collisions due to the bad weather, and the usual complaints. She eyed him over the rim of her cup, then placed the cup on the table. “Contact the Department of Transport and see if they can spray more salt on the roads in town. They invested in more snowplows this year and are concentrating on keeping the highway clear, so maybe they need to be advised of the situation.”
“Yes, ma’am, I’ll get on to it right away.” Rowley rose from the table, rinsed his plate and cup and placed them in the dishwasher. “We have people coming home for the holidays and I figured a public announcement to make sure they have chains or all-weather tires fitted to their vehicles would be beneficial.”
Jenna nodded in agreement. “Yeah, and maybe add to stay indoors during a blizzard and keep off the roads unless necessary.” She shook her head. “I can’t imagine why people come here in winter. I would be taking a vacation somewhere warmer, if I had an option.”
“Me too.” Rowley smiled.
Jenna glanced at her notebook. Working away from the office was a pain, like dealing with problems second-hand. “Another thing, with the Sky Paul case, I’m thinking ‘what if’ as we have nothing to go on. What if the man Ella Tate saw wasn’t alone?”
“Possible but if there was another man in the car wouldn’t he have helped try and catch her?” Kane scooped eggs into his mouth. “Why do you figure there are two men involved?”
Jenna sighed. “Because Sky’s vehicle vanished from sight and the man who attacked her had the keys.”
“Most vehicles around this way carry some type of towing device.” Rowley frowned. “It would be easy to hitch it to the back of his truck and tow it anywhere. It could be in another state by now.”
Jenna sighed. “Yeah, search and rescue said much the same. The time between the incident and getting on scene was far too long.” She looked at her deputies and shrugged. “It was just a thought.”
“We could make a visit to the local recycling yards but they were told to be on the lookout for the missing vehicle.” Kane cleared his throat. “Most have shut down over the holidays as well.”
Jenna nodded. “It’s worth a drive-by. If they’re closed, the car could have been abandoned outside.”
“I’ll go take a look.” Kane stood and refilled his cup. “But I figure search and rescue or the snowmobile team would have found it, even with the blizzard.”
“I’ll head into the office and open up.” Rowley shrugged into his coat and looked at Kane expectantly. “The snowplow should have cleared the roads by now.”
“I’ll be in later. I have to drop into the ME’s office to speak to Emily.” Kane sat back in his chair, making it groan under his weight. “I promised to take her some information on profiling.”
“Okay.” Rowley nodded at Jenna and headed for the front door, stopping to pull on his boots.
Once the door closed, Jenna explained the blood test situation to Kane. “Wolfe is concerned about security and is contacting HQ.”
“Don’t be surprised if a chopper lands here with a specialist crew on board.” Kane frowned. “They tend to move swiftly. I’ll call Rowley and tell him I’m staying home today.”
“It’s no big deal, Dave.” Jenna lifted her chin. “I m
anaged just fine before you arrived. I’m armed and aware of a potential threat. I’m sure I’ll make it until you come home at two.” She sighed. “I can’t see anyone risking an attack in daylight.”
“That would depend on the threat.” Kane’s expression of concern spoke volumes. “Did Wolfe mention anything about hacking the doctor’s computer?”
Jenna shook her head. “No, and I would say to do that legally would be difficult with the patient privilege laws.”
“I doubt HQ will be waiting for a court order, somehow.” Kane drummed his fingers on the table and smiled. “Wolfe told me you have information that’s even above my pay grade, so they’ll do one of two things—hack the doctor’s computer to see who she is contacting, or come and take you out of the equation.”
The thought of leaving her home, Kane, Wolfe, Rowley, Emily and her sisters hit her hard in the pit of the stomach. “I’m not leaving Black Rock Falls. You and the others are the only family I have now.” She stared at him in disbelief. “I’ll refuse to go. I nearly lost you once and I’m not losing you again.”
“You won’t have any choice.”
Sixteen
It was with some reluctance Kane left the house with Duke on his heels. With a possible threat hanging over Jenna, the last thing he wanted to do was leave her alone at an isolated ranch. Her insistence she would carry her Glock in a shoulder holster did little to ease his worry. If an assassin got through her inadequate security system, she wouldn’t have time to get to the safe room in the barn. Her ring when activated alerted his cellphone but he would be too far away to lend assistance in an emergency, yet she insisted on staying alone, giving the excuse that she would need to be available if Wolfe organized a team from HQ to update her security. Unconvinced his trip to the recycling yards was a priority he stood on the stoop for a few moments staring out across the landscape.
The overnight snow had flattened the view and the early morning rays of watery sun glistened like streaks of gold across the ice-covered grasslands. Winter in Black Rock Falls was a cruel beauty, turning the trees surrounding the perimeter of the house to black creaking menaces. The frozen snapping branches sounded like gunshots in the stillness. “A blanket of snow” well described the scene before him. The silence was as if nature had turned down the volume.
His boots crunched in the snow on his way to the garage. He started his truck, allowing the engine to idle, then strolled back to his snow-covered cottage. Icicles hung down from the gutters and frost covered the windows in swirling patterns. It reminded him of a gingerbread house. He turned over the keys in his palm then decided not to go inside, feeling as if it was an invasion of Rowley’s privacy.
Later this afternoon, he would start to move his belongings out of Jenna’s house. Rowley had already taken his horse from the stable and was making noises about being anxious to return home. Not that he blamed him. With his family returning home for the holidays, he would want to spend time with them, and then there was his dog. The plan had been for Rowley and the dog to move into the cottage, but they soon discovered Duke was a territorial creature and refused to allow another male dog inside.
Kane made his way back to his truck and backed out of the garage. He heard the whirr of chopper blades then a bird set down beside the corral, sending out more snow than a snowplow. Unsure of the identities of the occupants spilling out the door, he drove to the front of Jenna’s house, slid from the seat and pulled out his weapon. One of the four men headed toward him and the other three hauled equipment out of the chopper. As the man approached, Kane aimed his pistol at the man’s head. “Stop where you are.”
“We’re under orders, Deputy.” The man lifted his hands.
Kane held his Glock steady. “Hold your cred packs out where I can see them.”
“Sure.” The man pulled out his military-issue cred pack and issued an order for the others to do the same. “Wolfe organized a security update for a Jane Doe. We can handle it from here, Deputy.”
Kane scrutinized each man’s credentials, and satisfied they were legit, holstered his weapon. “I don’t think so. Wait here. I’ll go speak with her.”
He headed back up the steps and slipped inside to find Jenna, face ashen. “It’s the guys from HQ here to install a new security system. I suggest you disguise yourself a bit, maybe cover your hair, put on sunglasses. They don’t know who we are and referred to you as Jane Doe.” He squeezed her shoulder. “I’ll stay until they leave. I suggest you head over to the safe room. I’ll come get you when they’re done.”
“Thank you. I’ll slip out the back door. I’ll call Rowley and tell him you’ll be late. I don’t want him figuring you’ve wrecked your truck and be heading back here.” Jenna gave him a small smile, then jogged to her bedroom.
Kane opened the front door and gazed at the four men. “Okay, where do you want to start?”
“We’ll need access to all rooms, to alarm the windows, and we’ll be setting up a new perimeter silent alarm system.”
Kane rubbed his chin. “That will take hours.”
“Nah, one at most. We use wireless laser technology now, no wires and impervious to all weather conditions. Easy to use, fast to install. I’m told she has a CCTV screen array.” He waved a little box. “This baby collects the data, sends an alert to as many cellphones as you like. We’ll update the CCTV and be gone before you know it.”
After hearing the back door open and shut, Kane waved him inside. “Okay, you’re good to go.”
Like him, Jenna had no photographs and in fact nothing personal on show in her house to identify her. Fortunately, the previous evening he’d moved her cruiser into the barn and fitted the chains, ready for her to drive to work on Wednesday morning.
The men moved with swift efficiency and, after explaining the system to Kane, left in a cloud of disturbed snow. He collected Jenna from the safe room. “That didn’t take long.”
“How do you know they haven’t fitted cameras in every room or listening devices? I don’t trust anyone.” She dragged off her coat and tossed it onto a kitchen chair.
Kane shrugged. “I watched them, but we can do a sweep of the place if you like?”
“Oh yeah, I forgot you have all the gizmos.” Jenna pulled a face. “I remember the day you arrived.”
Kane chuckled. “So do I.” He headed to his room and pulled out a suitcase. “Do you know how to use one of these?” He held up the headphones and scanner.
“Yeah, I remember.” Jenna heaved a long sigh. “It seems like a lifetime ago. I can manage. Rowley will be waiting for you.”
Kane handed her the equipment. “I’ll explain the security system before I go. It’s much easier than before and we can set it or deactivate it via our cellphones. I’ve added three numbers to the alarm, yours, Wolfe’s and mine, just in case. They gave me three remotes to carry in our trucks. They’ll recognize us when we drive in and won’t trip the alarm. If there is a false alarm, you can send an automatic message to notify both of us.” He led the way into the office with the array of screens. “Now you can pan the entire ranch and zoom in. I’m amazed they got all this done so quickly.”
“It’s great.” She listened as he went over the details. “Okay, that’s easy to understand. So you can activate the alarm again when you drive out?”
“Yep.” Kane headed for the door. “If you do find any bugs, don’t nuke them until Wolfe has looked at them. We need to know what or who we’re dealing with.” He turned at the door. “I’ll call with an update on the recycling yards at lunchtime.”
“Okay.” She followed him out. “Drive safe.”
Seventeen
The hiss of the life support system filled the quiet room as he peered down at Sky. His need to silence her had ruined his plans. He should have been more careful; one punch had come close to killing her and had been no fun at all. After carrying her back inside and removing all evidence of her escape, he’d called the nurse back to work and explained how it was his fault she had fallen ou
t of bed and hit her head. The well-trained and overpaid man had not said a word but set about making sure Sky would be okay.
Annoyed, he went back to his office and sat in front of his computer. His visit with his girlfriend on Saturday night had been adequate but she hardly filled his insatiable need. She was a means to an end and he could control her by telling her what she wanted to hear. He had become so skilled over the years he could charm anyone into believing anything he said. His life had become a web of skillfully told lies. Most of the time people were gullible and if he told them he could walk on water they would believe him.
If his current occupation hadn’t been so lucrative in both money and satisfaction, he could have followed a different path. People believed him no matter what crimes he committed or lies he told. He had charm in spades and could talk his way out of trouble. After his father’s death, he convinced his partner to sign over his business and bank account to him the week before he died. The idiot actually believed he would look after his family for him. Hell, he would rather cut their throats.
The thought made him chuckle but he quickly sobered. The urge to kidnap was getting strong again; the adrenaline rush was long gone from Sky’s abduction. Now all he had to do was to find someone in the middle of winter in a blizzard. He logged in to his social media sites, scrolled through his many profiles and smiled. Several young people had made plans to return to Black Rock Falls for the holidays. He made a list and decided to take as many as possible; it was a long time until the spring break and he needed his hospital ward full.