“Hey, Travis. How are you?” she asked.
“I’m doing wonderfully. How about you?” They made small talk as they walked between their vehicles toward the sidewalk.
Annie stopped when Travis put his hand on her arm. When she felt a sharp prick just below her shoulder blade, she jerked, staring down at his hand in astonishment and confusion. “What are you doing?” The world suddenly tilted, and she watched as he dropped an empty syringe on the ground. Her vision started to blur as her legs turned to water underneath her.
Travis escorted her to the passenger side of his truck and roughly pushed her inside. Annie wanted to protest, but her limbs and mind were sluggish. She fought with her remaining strength, but it wasn’t enough.
“Oh, I thought we might go for a little ride, just you and me,” he said as he got her feet inside the vehicle. He took the cell phone from her hand and tossed it onto the bare lot behind him. “You won’t be needing that where we’re going.” As he closed the truck door, Annie felt a scream building in the back of her throat, but before she could let it out, everything faded to black.
Chapter 39
Travis got in his truck and carefully pulled into the street. Until he was clear of town, he didn’t want to attract any undue attention.
“That went exceptionally well, don’t you think?” he asked Annie. Even though she was unconscious, he kept up a steady stream of conversation as he drove. “It’s nice being able to talk to someone about this.” It took him about forty-five minutes to get to his destination, his own property near Madison. Somehow, it was fitting that it all ended there. He was taking from Chase Hudson, for the second time, something that had been denied him many years ago.
“It isn’t fair, you see, that Chase should get two chances at love in one lifetime,” he told Annie, who moaned. Travis smiled. “That’s right. You’ll be awake before you know it, and then we can have some real fun.”
He pulled the truck into his garage and turned off the engine. “I had to get a new truck, you know. Wrecked the old one down in Tennessee, in the hills. It’s so far down in a ravine, they’ll never find it. I made sure it burned, too, when it went over.” Going around to the passenger side, he slid Annie out and tossed her over his shoulder. “So you’ll understand if we don’t do this in my new truck. I really don’t want to have to destroy this one. It’s a lot prettier than my old one.”
He carried Annie into the house and to his bedroom. He tossed her down on the bed and went to his closet, where he grabbed a couple of neckties. Holding her hands together over her head, he tied them to the headboard with one, then sat down at her hip. He used the other as a gag, fastening it loosely around her mouth. Her eyes were open, but still unfocused.
He smiled down at her. “When you wake up a little more, I’ll take that off so we can talk. Right now, though, I need some peace and quiet. I need to prepare, you see. You’re so special, Annie. I’ll bet Chase tells you that all the time.”
He stood. “I’m going to go take care of some things. Plastic bags, towels, you understand. Otherwise, this could get messy.” He stopped at the door and turned around with a grin. “Don’t go anywhere now, you hear me?”
Chapter 40
After Travis left the bedroom, Annie remained immobile, listening to him clanging about in the rest of the house. She wasn’t as out of it as he seemed to have thought, and she hoped to use that to her advantage. When she had miscarried, she had learned that her body metabolized sedatives very quickly, and what would knock most people out and keep them out for an hour, only knocked her out for a fraction of that time.
When she was certain he was in another, distant part of the house, she tried to sit up and pull her hands loose. Taking care to not make too much noise, she managed to flip over onto her stomach and get up on her knees. With her hands in front of her, she was able to make relatively quick work of the knots.
“Stupid man,” she muttered underneath the tie he’d gagged her with. “Where’d you learn how to tie knots? You sure as hell weren’t ever a boy scout.” Once she was free, she looked around the bedroom, sliding the drawer of the nightstand open as quietly as she could. When she saw the silver revolver lying in the bottom, she had to choke back a sob of pure gratitude. It looked identical to the one she’d learned to shoot with as a young girl, before she’d come to loathe guns. Her hands were shaking so hard she didn’t know if she could pick it up. When she heard Travis coming back to the bedroom, she forced herself to take a deep, calming breath. Picking the gun up, she didn’t have time to check whether it was loaded or not, as she turned to face the door just as Travis came around the corner.
He stopped dead when he saw the gun. She saw the quick flash of shock, then fury that crossed his face an instant before he charged. Taking a chance and praying to God the gun was loaded, she pulled the trigger.
Chapter 41
As soon as Ethan told Stacy and Gordon that Annie was meeting Travis, they turned and ran out of the room. Ethan told Rafe to stay put and followed them. Stacy poked her head in the bullpen and told Robbie Bailey what was going on.
“Call Wyatt! Get him down here now,” she ordered, as close to panicked as Ethan had ever seen her. He hurried after Gordon, who was heading for the door that opened onto the street across from Lauren’s café. Stacy caught up, and the three of them dashed out the door. They waited until it was safe to cross the street, and then made a run for it. Ethan stopped the other two when they reached the sidewalk.
“We need to go around back,” he said, drawing his weapon. Stacy and Gordon followed suit. “If he’s down there, and he sees us coming, he could kill her before we can get to him.”
“You’re right,” Stacy said. “Let’s go.” They went around the back of The Brown Bag and ran as fast as they dared along the alley that the buildings backed up to. When they reached the building that housed The Gallery on Main, which was the building next to where Hudson Law had stood, Ethan up held his hand, and they stopped. He eased his head around the corner and looked at the empty lot. After a minute, he dropped back.
“Annie’s car is parked at the curb. No sign of her or Travis.” He looked again. “Let’s go slow. Gordon, you stay with Stacy. I’ll cut through the alley on the other side of this building and meet you on the street. Be careful, people.” He hurried off, and as he reached the street, he carefully looked around again. There was still no sign of either Travis or Annie and, after what seemed like hours, he met up with Stacy and Gordon as they came around the other side of The Gallery. He could feel sweat soaking his shirt, and an intense dread had solidified in his stomach.
“They aren’t here.” Gordon holstered his gun and hurried toward Annie’s car. “Goddamn him! It looks like they were, though.” He gestured toward an empty syringe lying on the street behind the Annie’s car.
“Here’s her cell phone,” Stacy said from a few feet away. She used her phone to call the dispatcher and was put straight through to Wyatt.
“Wyatt, he has her. We’re pretty sure,” she said. “There’s an empty syringe here, and her cell phone.” She looked around, her gaze searching as Wyatt spoke on the other end. “We don’t have anything to do that with.” She turned to Gordon. “He wants us to open the trunk.”
“We don’t have to,” Gordon said. “I can see in the hatchback. She’s not there.”
Stacy relayed the message and hung up. “CSU is on their way now,” she said. “They’ll be here in two minutes.”
“How did you know where Annie was going to be?” Gordon asked Ethan.
“Beth told me,” he said. “Damn it, I should have called her to make sure Annie isn’t there at the hospital. Lauren’s in labor.”
He pulled out his cell phone and speed-dialed Beth. “Hey, sweetie. Is Annie there with you, by any chance?” When she answered, he closed his eyes. “What time was she supposed to meet Travis?”
“Here comes CSU,” Stacy said, as the van pulled in a few parking spaces away. She went to meet them wh
ile Ethan finished his call.
“Okay, Beth. Who all is there? No, I’m on my way there now. I’ll explain when I get there. Love you,” he said. He disconnected, and the look he shot Gordon was full of frustration and fear.
“Chase, Jason, and Hannah are there with Beth, along with Lauren’s parents. God help me, Gordon, I don’t know if I can face him and tell him this,” he ground out.
Stacy walked up in time to hear the last part. “You don’t have a choice, Ethan. I’ll head back to the department and coordinate with you from there. You two need to get vests, get a car, and get to the hospital. Okay?”
Ethan gave a short nod, and the three of them started back down the street toward the courthouse. Once there, Ethan took Gordon to the equipment room to get him a bulletproof vest. Still on suspension, Gordon had been in Leroy all week without his gear. It was just sheer luck that he was carrying a backup weapon and had been wearing it today.
Wyatt burst into the equipment room. “Are we sure this guy has Annie?”
“Yeah, we are,” Ethan said. “And he could be anywhere with her. We only missed them by five or ten minutes. Beth talked to Annie not fifteen minutes ago, and she was on her way to the shop then.”
Wyatt nodded. “Then go. Go see if she told Beth anything else, then call us.”
The two men hurried to Ethan’s cruiser and drove to the hospital, which was only three minutes away by car. Once inside the hospital, Gordon pulled Ethan to a stop. Ethan spun around with a fierce look, but Gordon held firm.
“You should probably call Jason and get him to bring Beth and Chase down here somewhere,” Gordon said. “As much as we need to find Annie, this is not the time or the place to go bursting into a hospital room.”
“How can you be so calm?” Ethan asked, his frustration palpable. He took a deep breath to try and calm himself, knowing Gordon was right. He did as the agent suggested. “Hey, Jason. Can you do me a favor? Could you bring Beth and Chase down to the lobby?” Jason asked him what was going on. “We’ve got a bit of a situation. Keep things low-key, and just do it, okay?”
When he hung up, he turned back to Gordon. “Sorry about that. They’re on their way down.”
“Good. Where can we meet them?”
Ethan finally felt his adrenaline start to slow down to a more manageable level. “The chapel’s just around the corner. We can probably take them there.” They checked with the front desk to make sure the small, private room was available, and then moved to stand near the elevators. When the doors opened, Beth was the first to emerge.
“Ethan? What’s wrong?” she asked, going straight into his arms. Ethan didn’t answer, just gestured toward the chapel. He kept his eyes on Chase.
“We need to talk. Let’s go in here so we can have some privacy,” he said.
Jason stopped in his tracks, looking from Ethan to Gordon and back. “Is it Mom and Dad? Has something happened to them?” Jackie and Richard had gotten home late Thursday evening from their vacation.
“No, they’re fine,” Gordon said. “Let’s go into the chapel. We can’t discuss this in the hall.” Reluctantly, the brothers allowed themselves to be steered into the room.
Gordon shut the door, turned to them, and said, “Look, I’ll be blunt. We’re almost positive we know who the killer is. It’s Travis Tyler. And it looks like he has Annie.”
~ * * * ~
Chase heard a buzzing in his ears as, unable to move, he stared at Gordon. He was vaguely aware that Beth had collapsed, and that Ethan had sat down in one of the pews with her in his lap, but he couldn’t make himself react. When Jason reached over and shook him, he felt the buzz start to recede, and everything faded back in.
“I’m okay,” Beth was saying. “Oh God, Ethan! Not Annie. Are you sure?”
“Yeah, we are,” he confirmed.
Chase shook his head. “No, no. You’re wrong. No. Not again. I won’t let him take her from me, not this time.” He started for the door, but Gordon stopped him. Chase moved to shove him out of the way, but Gordon was ready for him and pushed back gently. Jason wrapped his arms around Chase from behind and held on, pinning his arms to his sides.
For a minute Chase struggled silently, uncaring that he had tears coursing down his cheeks. “Let me go,” he told Jason, who just tightened his hold.
“I can’t do that, Chase,” he said, his own voice thick. “You need to stop struggling, so we can figure out what to do. If you want a shot in hell of getting her back, you have to stop struggling.” He repeated himself until Chase finally stopped, the words sinking in.
“Okay, Jason. I hear you,” Chase said. Jason slowly released him and backed off. “What the hell happened? Travis is the killer?”
“Apparently he is,” Ethan said. “Rafe Lewis came into the station a little while ago and from some of the things he said about Travis, plus the fact that Annie was meeting him and now she’s vanished, I’d say it’s probably true.”
“You checked the lot?” Beth asked, as she sat up and moved to sit beside Ethan on the pew.
“Yeah. Her car was there, along with her cell phone.” Gordon reluctantly told them about the syringe.
“But my cell phone—was it there?” Chase asked frantically. Gordon and Ethan looked at him in confusion. “She had my cell phone with her. Did you find it?”
“No, we didn’t,” Ethan said. He grabbed his own phone and called Bert, who had been part of the CSU on the scene. He put him on speaker. “Bert, it’s Ethan. Did you get in the car yet?”
“Yeah, and there’s nothing out of the ordinary that we can see, other than her purse is missing. We’re bringing the car in, anyhow. Why?”
“Did you find another cell phone?”
“No. Just the one on the ground.”
Ethan thanked him and hung up, and quickly dialed another number. He kept the phone on speaker when Maria Pace answered.
“Maria, I need you to track a cell phone for me,” he said. “You heard about what’s going on, right?”
“About Annie? Yes. The whole department’s been lit on fire. Do you need to track her phone?”
“No. I’m here with Chase Hudson. It’s his phone; we think Annie has it with her. I have you on speaker. What do you need to do that?”
They could hear Maria cursing and scrambling in the background. “Let me get in front of my computer. Put me on speaker, Ethan.”
“You already are.”
“Okay. Chase, I need to know if your cell phone has GPS or not, and who’s your carrier?” she asked.
“It does, it’s a smart phone,” Chase said. He passed along the name of his carrier and the phone number. “Can you track it?” Hands shoved in his hair, he started pacing the tiny chapel room.
“I should be able to, if it’s on. Hold on a minute,” she said. “I’m going to call your carrier and get them to turn on the GPS. I’m using my own phone, so you’ll be able to hear, okay?” They listened as she made the call and reached the appropriate department. Chase felt like time was dripping slowly, instead of ticking along. Every second felt like an eternity while Maria explained the situation to the carrier, who agreed to do as she asked.
“It will take about two minutes to get the GPS turned on, and then if you have a dispatcher you can put me in contact with, I can guide your units to wherever they need to go,” the specialist from the cell phone carrier said. When they put Maria on hold, she came back to the other line.
“Ethan, did you get that?”
“Yes. I’m going to have Jason call Stacy and coordinate with her,” he said. “Jason, have her get to Rafe Lewis and when we get a location, pass it on to her. He may know where this guy’s taking Annie. Then Gordon and I will hit the road to wherever they are.” Jason complied and, by the time the phone company came back on the line, Stacy was with Rafe.
“It looks like your phone is on the move,” the tech announced. “Heading up highway seven, getting close to Jefferson County, Indiana.”
Jason relayed the inf
ormation to Stacy. When Ethan and Gordon got ready to leave the chapel, Chase followed.
“Chase, you need to stay here,” Gordon told him. When Chase just glared at him, Gordon held up his hands. “I had to try.”
“But you stay out of the way, Chase,” Ethan ordered, as they all hurried to the front of the hospital. “Or I’ll lock you in the car myself. Jason, you’re staying with Beth, either here at the hospital or at the courthouse. Don’t go to the bathroom without him,” Ethan told Beth, as he pulled her close for a quick hug and kiss. The three men piled into the cruiser, but before Ethan could pull out, Jason stopped him.
“Stacy says Lewis is telling her he thinks Travis might be heading for his property in Madison,” he said. “She’s sending the directions to your car, just in case.”
“Okay,” Ethan said. “We’re off.” He handed his phone to Gordon and pulled out of the loading zone. At the end of the entrance, he flipped on the lights and siren and headed for Highway 7. “Maria, when you can, switch from phone to radio and go find Stacy. Where’s he at now?”
She asked the tech for an update. “Still on Seven, Ethan,” she said. “I’m switching to the radio now.” In a few seconds, she was back on the police radio, and Gordon closed Ethan’s phone. They were moving fast, as fast as Ethan could safely push the car through traffic, but Chase was terrified they weren’t going to make it in time.
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