She tore free of the cop and flung herself into Beth’s arms.
“You know this girl, Ms. Slocum?”
Beth nodded, holding her daughter close, stroking her back. “Dawny, my God, what’s happened to you?”
“Dawn?” Joshua repeated the name, and Beth caught his eye and nodded once, then tried to focus on the broken words that punctuated Dawn’s sobs and gulps.
Modercai and forest and Bryan.
Beth gripped her shoulders and stared down at her face. “Slow down, take a breath and tell me what happened.”
Dawn sniffled, nodded jerkily and wiped the back of one muddy hand across her face, smearing more mud there. “Mordecai is after Bryan.”
“You know where Bryan is?” Josh shouted.
“I know where he was. I—I didn’t want to leave him. He made me come for help. I can show you.”
Josh gripped her arm. “Let’s go.”
“Joshua, for God’s sake,” Beth said. “Look at her. She’s half-frozen, wet through, scratched and bruised and God knows what else. She needs—”
“No.” Dawn put a hand on Beth’s shoulder. “No, we have to go now. I’m fine.”
“We can take my car,” Arthur Stanton said, pulling out his key ring, aiming it and hitting a button. The car came to life in the driveway, headlights flashing on, engine humming softly.
“I’ll take mine, too, and use the radio to call for more help,” Frankie Parker said.
The others who had gathered in the house were already thundering down the porch steps, shouting about getting search parties organized and who had ATVs that could be used as they got into their vehicles.
Dawn was shivering, her hand like a block of ice when she closed it around Beth’s and tugged her toward the waiting vehicles.
“Wait.” Beth pulled free and ran back inside, yanking her coat and Josh’s from the closet, and a blanket from the back of the sofa, then rejoining Dawn outside. They jumped into the back seat of Arthur’s car. Josh got into the front with Stanton.
As they pulled away, the chief followed. Beth held Dawn in her arms, stroking her shoulders, trying to comfort her as snow fell in the twin beams of the car’s headlights.
“Here,” Dawn said when they’d gone only a few yards. “Turn off onto that dirt road there. I walked along this thing for I don’t know how long, looking for a house, a car, anything. But I marked the spot where I came out of the woods—it’ll be on the right side.”
“What did you use to mark it, Dawn?” Beth asked her.
“One of my socks. The other one is at the spot where I last saw Bryan.”
“He was okay? When you last saw him?” Joshua asked.
Dawn nodded. “He was fine. And it was only a couple of hours ago.”
Joshua sighed in relief, then lifted his head again, facing Dawn from the front seat. “You have to tell us what the hell has been going on. Have you been with Bryan ever since he supposedly left for California? Hiding out in a motel outside of town?”
Beth saw Dawn’s eyes widen, and then they shot straight to hers. “It’s not like it sounds. I swear we weren’t—we didn’t—it wasn’t anything sexual.”
“Well, then, what the hell was it?” Josh asked.
“Jesus, no wonder Bryan can’t talk to you!”
“Dawn—” Beth warned.
“I’m sorry, but it’s true. God, does he really think we would have risked our lives just for a chance to get laid?”
Josh’s face registered shock at the frankness of her words, but Beth wasn’t shocked at all. “Cut him some slack, Dawn,” Beth said. “He’s worried about his son. That’s all.”
Dawn relaxed back on the seat. “That’s no reason to take it out on me.” She faced Beth, addressing her, not Joshua. “Bry and I were in touch online. When Maude died, I got the feeling something was up, and then your house exploded, and I knew. Mom and Sean were out of town on a story, so I decided to come up here and make sure you were okay.”
Beth closed her eyes. God, Julie didn’t even know Dawn was here?
“Once I got here, I convinced Bry to hide me so you wouldn’t go ratting me out or sending me home. He hid me out up in his room.” She turned to Josh. “Where I slept on the bed, and he took the floor.” She sent him a look that should have wilted him as she spoke, then turned her eyes right back to Beth’s again. “And we started doing a little digging. We thought we had a good shot at helping find Mordecai, so when you all decided to send Bryan packing, we faked you out and checked into a motel.” She looked up at Joshua. “A room with two beds.”
“All right, all right. I’m sorry I offended you,” Josh said. “But I still don’t see what drove Mordecai to go after my son.”
Dawn lowered her eyes. “He lost a daughter,” she said. “Maybe he’s looking for a replacement.”
Beth felt her daughter’s pain, and she saw the sympathy appear on Josh’s face, as well, but before either of them could say anything, Dawn jerked her head up again. “Slow down, Mr. Stanton. It’s up here somewhere.”
Arthur slowed the car to a crawl, and everyone scanned the roadside for Dawn’s marker as she went on. “Bryan and I staked out the funeral, and sure enough, Mordecai showed up. He was watching the two of you. We followed him when he left, found out where he was staying. But he spotted us, and we had to run for it. He recognized Bryan somehow. I don’t even know how he knows him. I don’t think he ever realized who I was.” She paused there. “That’s odd, don’t you think? I mean, even if he didn’t see me clearly, wouldn’t that sixth sense of his or his guides or whatever have told him?”
“Honey, he’s not right,” Beth said. “Who knows why his mind or his senses work the way they do?”
“There it is. That’s the spot where I came out of the woods!” Dawn thrust her arm between the two men in the front seat, pointing excitedly.
Arthur pulled over, and the headlights picked out the dirt-streaked white sock knotted around a low-hanging branch that stuck out over the road.
“What happened tonight, Dawn?” Joshua asked. He asked it gently, his expression no longer hostile.
“Bry and I were lurking outside Maude’s house, waiting for you guys to leave so we could get in. I was going to look for Arthur Stanton’s number, or maybe Lieutenant Jackson’s, so we could phone someone and tell them where Mordecai was. I wasn’t sure we could trust the local police, and if we told you or Beth, you’d have sent me back home and Bry off to California.” She shrugged. “Though Bry did insist that if we couldn’t find the number tonight, we had to come clean with you. Anyway, Mordecai walked up on us in the woods. We ran, he chased. After a while Bry hid me in some brush and ran off in the other direction.” She lowered her head. “He led him away from me so I could come down here for help.”
Josh nodded. “So he’s up there?” As he spoke, he opened the car door, got out and stood staring at the rising, forested mountain. Snow was falling around him, big flakes of it drifting at a steadier rate than before.
Dawn opened her door and got out, as well. She pointed to a stream. “I found that stream and followed it down, so it would be easier to find my way back up. Follow it up a long ways. There’s a spot where the slope levels off and the beavers dammed the stream up to make a tiny pond. When you get to that point, the stream veers right. You need to keep going straight up. About fifty yards, to the pile of deadfall where Bry hid me. I tied the other sock there to mark it. From there, Bry headed up, but at an angle off to the left.” She pointed to illustrate.
Joshua nodded. Beth and Arthur had gotten out of the car to join them, and Frankie’s squad car had pulled up behind them. “I’m going up,” Josh said. “Arthur, you and the chief can organize the volunteers, form a search party. Maybe get us a helicopter out here.”
“And someone ought to check out the house he was using,” Arthur added.
Josh shot a hand to his arm. “I don’t give a rat’s ass about the house or about catching Mordecai, Arthur. I want every resource dev
oted to finding my son. Do you understand?”
He nodded. “After he’s safe,” he corrected himself.
Josh turned to Beth, and suddenly his face changed. It was as if he were suddenly torn. “Beth—”
“Don’t even start with that protective bull, Josh. You have to go after your son. I’ll join you in the search—just as soon as I get Dawn situated.”
He thinned his lips, shot a look at Arthur Stanton. “Don’t leave her alone. Not for one fucking minute. Keep her safe until I get back.”
Arthur looked surprised. Then Josh snapped an arm around Beth’s waist and pulled her to him, bent his head and kissed her hard. “Be safe, Beth.”
“You, too,” she whispered, cupping his face with her hand. “Find him, Josh.”
He nodded, then turned and started up into the woods.
Beth watched him out of sight, then turned to Dawn. “Where is this house Mordecai was using?”
“That little town between Blackberry and Pineville.”
“Pinedale,” Beth corrected, then looked at Frankie. “She means Bonnie Brook.”
“Yeah, that’s it,” Dawn said. “It’s on the main road, one of a whole row of big Victorians all clustered together. Pretty.”
“I know where that is,” Chief Frankie said. “Which one is he in?”
“The one with the pink-and-green trim.”
Frankie nodded. “I’ll get one or two of my men on that. Just to watch it, in case Mordecai tries to go back there tonight.”
“But Josh said—” Dawn began.
“Josh is upset,” Beth interrupted. “If Mordecai gets Bryan, chances are that’s where he would take him. Frankie’s right—we have to cover it. And also, organize all the searchers we can get our hands on.”
“I’m on that,” Frankie said. She was already reaching into her car for the radio.
Beth put an arm around Dawn. “I’m going to take Dawn back to my house.”
“Not alone you’re not,” Arthur said. He held open his car door. Beth got inside. Dawn followed, and Arthur Stanton drove them back to the onetime inn.
“There’s a hot bath just about ready, Dawn.” Beth handed her a steaming cup of cocoa. “Take this with you and go soak.”
Dawn took the cocoa between her palms and took a sip, but she was shaking her head even before she swallowed it. “I just want to put on some dry clothes and head right back out. We have to look for Bryan.”
Beth put a firm hand on her shoulder. “One teenager at risk is more than enough, Dawn. You’re going to soak in that tub and drink your cocoa. And I’m going to contact your mother.”
Dawn thrust out her lower lip. “She and Sean are in D.C. Doing preelection reporting for News Four. They won’t be back for another three days.”
“And you have her number there?”
Dawn sighed, but nodded.
“Write it down for me before you get into the tub.”
Sighing as if Beth were asking her to surrender a kidney, Dawn turned to the telephone stand and scribbled a number on the pad there. “Don’t send her into a panic. Tell her I’m okay, but I’m damn well not leaving here until this is over.”
“Dawn, don’t be ridiculous. This doesn’t involve you.”
She lifted her eyes, locked them with Beth’s. “He’s my father. If it doesn’t involve me, who the hell does it involve?”
Beth frowned at her daughter. “It’s not your responsibility.”
“I feel like it is. I feel like I have to see this through to the end. And I know you understand that, Beth, because I know it’s how you feel, too.”
Beth had to avert her eyes.
“If you send me home, I’ll run away and come back the first chance I get.” She sighed, turned and headed up the stairs. “Tell Mom I’ll call her before bed. She’ll want to know when she’s going to get the chance to lecture me.”
“I’ll tell her.”
Then she was out of sight. Beth heard the bathroom door close, sighed and went to the telephone. She understood all too well what Dawn was feeling, though she had to admit Dawn’s feelings came as a surprise to her. She was too young to take on so much.
Sighing, she picked up the phone. This was not a call she looked forward to making.
Mordecai was furious when the guides called him off the hunt. “By God, why now? I’m so close!”
They’re going to the house, Mordecai. You have business to take care of. Leave the boy. There will be another chance with him.
“Another twenty minutes,” he snapped. “In another twenty minutes I can have the boy and be on the way out of here.”
Searchers are fanning into the woods even now. If you’re caught, Mordecai, your mission ends unfulfilled. You won’t have brought Lizzie to her rightful end, and you won’t have passed your gifts on to your heir. It will all have been for nothing.
“To hell with my mission! Jesus, I’m tired of it. I’m so tired of it all.”
Suddenly Mordecai’s head filled with a roar, like that of an avalanche, or the thundering floodwaters of biblical lore. So loud it was deafening. So powerful, it filled his skull with pressure that threatened to split it apart. He pressed his palms to his ears, his face twisting in agony, and dropped to his knees there in the forest.
Gradually the roar faded, leaving him with a pounding headache, his entire body trembling and weak. “I’m…sorry. Forgive me my pathetic human condition. I’ll do as you say.”
Go down, get to your vehicle and activate the counter measures you prepared for the house.
“And after that?”
We’ll guide you. Trust in Spirit, Mordecai. Spirit knows.
Closing his eyes, still on his knees, Mordecai bowed his head. “Thy will be done.”
Beth held her breath waiting. Then Julie picked up her cell with a brisk, “Julie Jones.”
“Hi, Jewel. It’s Lizzie.”
There was a pause. Her friend was probably startled to hear from her, especially in D.C.
“Honey? What’s wrong? Is everything okay?”
Beth drew a breath, let it out. “Dawny’s here.”
“What?”
“She got wind of what was happening here and came out. Apparently she’s been lurking around for a few days now, and we didn’t even know she was here.”
She could almost see Julie’s brow furrowing. “Something’s happening there?”
“You mean it hasn’t hit the wires yet?” Then again, she thought, it had only been a few hours since the paper ran her story. “She’s safe, Jewel. She’s upstairs now. Arthur Stanton is here, and by morning he’ll have this place crawling with Feds.”
“Is Mordecai there, Beth?”
Beth sighed. “Yeah. He’s in town. But it’s no secret. They know where he’s been staying, and there’s a team headed over there now to check his place out.” She stopped there, but Julie was waiting for her to go on. “Stanton sent me another bodyguard. A decent one this time. His name is Joshua Kendall. Dawn and Joshua’s son, Bryan, have been playing detective. Mordecai saw them, went after them, wound up chasing them through the woods.”
“Oh, my God,” Julie whispered. Beth could hear Sean’s voice beyond her, asking what was wrong. “We’re checking out,” Julie told him. “Dawn’s in trouble.”
“She’s fine, Julie. Bryan led Mordecai off in another direction and gave her time to slip away. She showed up at the door tonight, and that’s the first I even knew she was in town.”
“When I finish hugging her, I think I’ll kill her,” Julie said. Then, “Sean, do you have Lieutenant Jackson’s number with you?”
“Jax?” Sean replied, his voice coming from very close to the phone. “Yeah, I’ve got it. Hold on.”
Beth went on. “Bryan’s still in the woods somewhere. Joshua’s looking, and the police chief is forming search parties to go help. I’d be there, too, but…”
“But you don’t dare leave Dawn.”
“I don’t want to leave her. And she won’t leave me. Jewel
, it’s as if she feels like she has some kind of obligation to do something about Mordecai.”
“Yeah, we’ve talked about it. You can’t reason with her. I tried taking her for therapy after everything that happened last year, but that didn’t help, either.”
Beth sighed. “It’s not right.”
“I know. Look, we’ll be there as soon as we can.”
“It’s not going to do any good. Look, either he’s going to come after me, or he’s going to leave town. Your being here only gives him a wider range of targets.”
“We’ll be there.”
She heard Sean’s voice but couldn’t tell what he was saying. Julie said, “Hold on, hon,” and covered the phone with her hand. Their voices were muffled. Then Julie’s came back on the line. “It’s not going to be as easy for us to get there as I thought. There’s an ice storm here. Sleet and freezing rain. I didn’t realize how bad it was, but Sean says the airports are canceling flights. Jesus, I hate this.”
“It’ll be all right.”
“I’m calling Cassie Jackson. I don’t know what she can do from Syracuse, but she’s the best cop I know. And she has a vested interest in Dawn. And Mordecai.”
“Have her call me. But meanwhile, don’t worry, Jewel. I’m watching over her.”
“Easier said than done. But I know you are. Can I talk to her?”
“She said she’d call you before bed. I’ve got her soaking in the tub right now.”
“God, poor thing. Is she all right?”
“She got pretty cold, plenty wet, had a few scratches and bruises from stumbling through the forest in the dark, and I imagine she’s exhausted, as well. Not to mention scared.”
“She must have been terrified.”
“Still is. For Bryan, I mean. She wanted to change clothes and go out looking, but I wouldn’t let her.”
“Yeah, well, if there’s a window in that bathroom, you might want to nail it shut. If she can get out, she will.”
Colder Than Ice Page 28