Cisco padded along keeping his head low and his tail down, concentrating on any curious scent. It was clear that the dog had an instinct that this wasn’t a fun hike. He obediently kept a few paces behind Chad, waiting for his next command.
Chad walked for forty minutes without finding any indication that Rey had taken this particular road. He was at a high altitude and able to see into the various canyon and trail sections. The whole area seemed deserted and lonely. He stopped to listen and take in the view for any indication of movement, dust rising, or unusual sounds.
The air stood still—no wind blew, which was strange in itself. A couple of sparrows chirped their songs, but nothing else moved, scurried, flew, or sang.
Deep emotions welled up inside Chad, something he had never experienced before. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh or cry. The reality of Katie’s predicament was overwhelming and it seemed impossible there would be a happy ending as he looked out at the vast area, searching for answers. He imagined her green eyes gazing at him as her long dark hair blew in the wind. She was a strong, intelligent woman who obviously didn’t know how beautiful she was—or maybe she did and it didn’t make any difference to her. That thought made Chad smile.
The truth was, she could be anywhere—in another state and not in the rural mountain areas that were currently being searched. But looking for her here was a gamble worth taking.
Cisco bumped his wet nose against Chad’s hand as if to remind him he was there with him, that they’d find her.
“What’s up?” he said, looking down at the jet-black dog with wolf eyes. “I know, I’m scared too.” He looked around and remembered the many times they’d hiked and camped in the area growing up. He’d loved her then and nothing had changed.
Cisco kept his eyes fixed on him.
Chad knew that the dog had seen more combat conditions than most humans. He wondered too if Cisco sensed they were embarking on a fight—a fight to find Katie and save her life.
Looking back at the landscape, he whispered, “Where are you, Katie?”
Fifty-Four
“You should have left things alone,” Charles Rey said, never moving the barrel of the gun away from Katie’s face. “I warned you… I warned you to leave these cases alone, but you didn’t listen.”
Katie blinked a couple of times and then took her eyes away from the gun and watched Charles’s face as he spoke. She immediately noticed a white bandage wrapped tightly around his upper right arm, speckled with drops of blood.
Good boy, Cisco.
“Why couldn’t you just let them sleep?” he said. He lowered his head and mumbled, “Sleep… sleep, my pretty ones…”
“You know I can’t do that,” she replied, running through every type of escape scenario she could think of.
“I’m not wasting any more time allowing you to undo everything I’ve done. You made your decision. You’re responsible for your own predicament, right here, right now, and you will have to pay.”
“You may not believe this, but I do understand,” she said.
“Shut up!” His anger rose and unleashed; he seemed unable to control it. “Shut up!”
“I know how you feel,” she gently pushed.
“You don’t know anything! Have you seen what’s going on in the world, everywhere, even right here? It sickens me.”
Katie nodded.
“You know that girl’s parents had swinger parties? Abuse. Lust. Greed. What kind of environment is that for children? It gets worse every day. Every time I turn on the news I see children who have been victims, who have seen terrible things.”
While he was speaking, Katie tightened her abdominals and tried to sit up.
“Stay right there!”
She slowly leaned back, trying not to bruise her head any more than it already was.
“I know you, Katie. Smart. Capable. Tough. I always liked you. But your smarts have gotten you in this situation. I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to do it…”
“Do what?”
The shotgun wavered slightly. “I didn’t want to trap you and that nice deputy in the barn to die. I honestly didn’t want to…”
“I believe you. If you let me go, I’ll do everything within my power to help you. My uncle will do everything he can to help you—I can promise you that.”
Charles laughed, a hearty deep belly laugh.
Katie tried to sit up again, but Charles pushed the barrel of the gun toward her face.
“Stay right there, girlie.” Holding the weapon steady, he said, “I think for all your smarts you underestimate me. That’s why you couldn’t figure out the case. It was staring right at you, I was even helping you.” He laughed again. “Get up,” he said, waving the gun.
Katie hesitated.
“I said get up.”
Katie sat up, very aware that she was only dressed in her bra and panties. She watched Charles as he waited for her to obey him. She used her hands to brace herself and balance as she stood up. A wave of dizziness blanketed her, and she fought to keep her equilibrium. Standing up made the back of her head pound harder, and she realized she was in an extremely weakened state. She fought the rising nausea as she stepped from the coffin, her bare feet pressed against the cold dirt.
“Very nice,” he said, looking her up and down. “You are a very pretty girl.”
Katie flinched, revolted by this man staring at her, a killer of young, innocent girls.
“It’s not too late,” she said. She glanced at the open coffin, which had been haphazardly assembled with mismatched pieces of wood and secured by two-inch screws. It was a reminder that she would probably be buried alive if the situation didn’t change—and soon.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to bury you,” Charles said. There was a slight sarcasm to his voice; it was more morbid than funny. “I have something else in mind for you.”
Katie stood her ground. Her physical and emotional strength was creeping back as the dizziness faded. She knew she couldn’t overpower him, but there would be a moment—most likely only a second or two—that would prove to be in her favor. She would have to wait patiently and have faith it would come.
“You’re not good enough to get a special burial. You are going to fly,” he said.
Katie assumed that meant she would be pushed to her death. She remained silent, waiting for her opportunity to arise.
He added, “When you’re gone, I’ll make sure your dog meets his demise too. There will be nothing left of you.”
“You surprise me, Charles,” she said. “I expected more from you. This is pitiful, even for you.”
“Shut up and walk.” He gestured to a narrow path leading to a cliff.
“You know you can’t take away the memory or the pain?” She was assuming something terrible had happened to him in the past—she guessed it was the loss of someone close before he came to Pine Valley.
“What are you talking about?”
“You know what I’m talking about,” she said.
He stopped abruptly. His chest raised and lowered at an accelerated rate. “You never speak of her. You never speak of Dottie.”
“Would she have agreed with what you’re doing? If I had to wager a guess, my answer would be no.” She didn’t know who Dottie was, but it didn’t matter. She had managed to push Rey’s distress button to draw him out.
He shoved the barrel of the gun into her back. “You know nothing of what she went through. What they did to her.”
“Would she approve of who you are today?”
“They tortured her, raped her, and left her to die.” His voice wavered in grief. “What they did was pure evil.”
“What makes you different from them?” She wanted to keep him talking.
“I may not have been in her life, but that still didn’t change the fact that I was her daddy.”
“You couldn’t protect her.”
“I never had the chance!” he cried. “Never… ever… Things might’ve been different. S
he would be alive today.”
As Katie neared the cliff, she knew she had options. She had to keep Charles talking about his daughter; it would give her time to think. The area overall was unfamiliar to her and she didn’t think she had visited it before. It was difficult to figure out where she was, but from the position of the sun, she could tell they were moving southeast.
Think, Katie.
Think, dammit.
The cliff kept getting closer… closer… and closer.
Now or never.
She spun around, using her right arm and elbow to smack away the shotgun. The timing was perfect and achieved the exact result she wanted. Charles must’ve relaxed his grip, and the gun flew sideways and landed several yards away, just out of reach.
He let out a weird strangled yell of dismay.
Not having enough time to grab the shotgun, Katie took the opportunity to run toward the truck. Her feet pounded on the hard-packed ground, and she felt every rock, pebble, and bump against her heel and arch.
She didn’t dare to look back, so didn’t realize how close Charles was behind her. She took a hard hit from him and catapulted forward, landing face down on the ground. He pounced on top of her, and she struggled to free herself, then twisted around to face him, kicking and scratching like a wild animal and clawing at his face, barely missing his eyes.
He was stronger than she had imagined—he had obviously kept up his strength and physical fitness. She let out a fierce yell as she dodged his fists and the spittle flying from his mouth. Then he slapped her across the face with such force that everything became dull and she actually saw flickering stars. She lay back stunned, unable to move.
Charles, face bloodied, took the opportunity to reach for the bowie knife he carried on his belt.
Katie fought to remain conscious and alert. She began scooting backward as she spotted the glint of the large knife in his right hand. His face showed sheer hatred, and with the blood running down his cheeks, he resembled a demon who wanted her dead at any cost. He began swinging the blade back and forth rhythmically, and with each swipe, the edge of it came dangerously close to her face. She tried to use her arms to block it, but he continued his rampage, kicking her hands, forearms, and shoulders.
Her hand sank into a small hole, causing her to lose her balance. She watched helplessly as the blade neared her neck.
Charles caught his breath and prepared for the final blow.
Katie knew she couldn’t fight this monster, but as she prepared for the worst, she became aware of a deep rumbling beneath her. The ground shook and the trees swayed. It was a strange and unfamiliar sensation.
Both Katie and Charles froze, their bodies tense.
Katie had never heard or felt anything like it before. It wasn’t an earthquake; like most Californians, she was used to those. It was something much more deadly—something from the evil depths below.
The ground vibrated more violently, accompanied by an escalating roar, as if a machine was set to high and was going to shake them to death.
“What the…?” began Charles, but his voice was drowned out by a huge rumble and an ear-shattering boom.
Katie instinctively moved away, ready to get up and run.
The sound became deafening all around them. The ground buckled, leaving behind a trail as if someone had lit a fuse, igniting a runaway fire. A long channel along the trail plummeted into a sinkhole. She looked at Charles one last time, their eyes locking as the earth beneath them fell away and dropped like a lead weight.
Then she watched in paralyzing horror as he disappeared under the ground.
Fifty-Five
Chad was moving quietly down a long trail just wide enough for a single vehicle, not wanting to alert anyone to his approach. He was followed closely by Cisco, which helped him to maintain a good pace.
His radio buzzed.
“Chad, location?” came the sheriff’s voice.
“Working the upper eastern grid. Negative. Ten-four,” he replied.
“There are only a few more hours of usable daylight.”
“Copy.”
“Keep to your check-in times,”
“Copy. Any word?”
There was a slight pause. “Negative.”
“Over and out.” The radio went silent. Chad didn’t want to hear the chatter from the other volunteers. It would make his search that much more dismal, and he wanted to maintain his optimism.
Cisco whined and trotted a few feet ahead of him.
“Let’s keep going,” Chad said. “Find me something, boy.”
They walked for another forty minutes without anything to indicate that Katie was close. Chad searched for tire tracks, freshly moved dirt, or anything that appeared to have been disturbed in the last few hours.
Every step seemed to make the search for Katie that much larger and unmanageable, impossible for only a hundred or so volunteers.
Chad stopped and leaned against a large tree trunk, one of his rare breaks, and retrieved his water bottle. He drank four full gulps and poured some out for Cisco.
Inside his backpack there were various small hand tools for anything he might encounter or run into. He pulled out a pick and flung it across the trail, where it stuck into a tree. His frustration had become his nemesis, and it began to berate him and tell him to turn back, because finding Katie was impossible.
“No!” he yelled. His voice rang through a valley area and slowly disappeared. The eerie echo melted away through the trees and around the hills. “You can’t take her!” he said. It made him feel better as he retrieved the pick.
He pushed away any negative thoughts and began to make his way back to the Jeep. He would drive further into the dense area and hike another grid. This time it might be different.
* * *
With every step, Chad felt his energy and optimism begin to fade. It was out of character for him to give up when something became tough, so he pushed onward. He thought of Katie’s precise notes and how hard she had searched, refusing to admit defeat on finding the missing girl. Following her lead, he would not abandon the search until there were no areas left to explore.
For the past half-hour, he had thought he heard some low rumbling noises, but he couldn’t be certain. The last one had sounded like an earthquake, but the ground hadn’t moved.
He grabbed his radio. “Ferguson, section four, anyone copy?”
“Section one copy, McGaven here, go ahead.”
Chad was relieved to hear a familiar voice. “Strange noises,” he continued. “Sounds like an earthquake. Did you hear or see anything unusual? Over.”
“No, nothing unusual. Over.”
Chad was disappointed, but felt better that he had contacted one of the other teams. “Ten-four, over and out.”
Suddenly a loud rumbling followed by a boom interrupted the silence. Cisco began barking, then whining, and continued to rapid-bark.
Chad looked around to see if he could spot anything unusual. A cluster of trees in the distance appeared to move, and a fine dust rose in the air.
“What the hell?”
Explosion?
Unusual earth movement?
He moved to Cisco to try and calm the dog with gentle pats. “It’s okay, boy.” Then he sat down on a nearby boulder and waited.
More than fifteen minutes passed without any more noises or earth movements. His first thought was that maybe the military were testing some type of bomb; it had happened before, but this was strangely different.
Looking up at the sky, he knew that it had something to do with Katie. But what?
He waited for another couple of minutes before continuing his search.
Fifty-Six
Charles Rey had fallen into the unknown depths below the surface of the earth. One moment he had been staring at Katie with the intent to kill her, and the next he had vanished like a magic trick. There was no sign left of him. She couldn’t hear his voice yelling for help or any sound at all. After the shifting and booming from
beneath the surface stopped, it became completely quiet.
Katie had managed to grab hold of heavy tree roots to stop her own plunge, but she didn’t know how much longer she could hold on in her precarious twisted, bent-over position. She pulled herself higher and craned her neck to look up. She estimated she was about six feet below the surface. Dirt kept pouring down, and it was only a matter of time before the entire area would cave in completely.
“Charles!” she yelled, and listened as her voice echoed and bounced around for what seemed like miles. Her mouth tasted of dirt. The utter darkness below her triggered momentary vertigo; she was unable to verify if she was upside down or the right way up as she stared down into the abyss.
When she looked up, she could see parts of the sky, but daylight was dwindling. She had no way of knowing if anyone was searching for her, or what would happen when darkness fell. Her face and body were covered in moldy-smelling dirt. It was in her hair and trickling down her back, combining with her perspiration. Her arms and legs trembled from exertion. Fear had woven its way into her mind, but it was something she needed to push away.
With all the strength she had, she slowly climbed upward and began to claw her way out. At first, the loose dirt was impossible to grip and she couldn’t find any hand- or footholds.
An image came into her mind of the picnic she’d had with Chad: the laughter, sharing life stories, and being comfortable together. Those moments were difficult to recreate, and when they happened, it was magical. She had begun building her life again—working cases, meeting new colleagues, and settling in at home.
Home.
She knew her uncle would take care of Cisco if anything happened to her. That thought pulled at her heartstrings.
The sinkhole reminded her of the stories from the early settlers in the mountain area who claimed that during the 1870s, towns completely disappeared, with not a trace remaining of buildings, homes, or livestock. No one knew what had happened to them. Could this have been the answer?
Little Girls Sleeping: An absolutely gripping crime thriller Page 25