The Valentine Two-Step
Page 19
Matt pulled in to the driveway and turned off the pickup’s rumbling engine. He gave her hand a comforting squeeze. “Okay, she’s not here. But maybe she left a message for you.”
Trying to keep the panic at bay, Ellie climbed from the truck and unlocked the side door leading to the kitchen. When she saw no blinking light on the answering machine, she almost sobbed. She probably would have if Matt hadn’t followed her inside.
Instead, she flipped on every light in the kitchen, even the one over the stove. It seemed desperately important suddenly, as if she could fight the darkness inside her.
That done, she moved through the house urgently, only vaguely aware of Matt shadowing her while she turned on the lights in every single room until the house blazed like a Christmas tree.
The porch light. She should turn that on, too, so her little girl could find her way home.
She went to the front door and flipped the switch. Just as she turned away, something jarring, out of place, caught the edge of her vision through the small beveled window in the door.
She pushed aside the lace curtain for a better look, then felt the blood leave her face and a horrified scream well up in her throat. What came out was a pathetic little whimper like a distressed kitten’s, but it was enough for Matt to grab her and shove her aside so he could look.
He bit out a string of oaths and yanked the door open. “What the hell is that?”
Her hands began to shake, and she was afraid she was going to be sick. “I…I think it’s a calf fetus.”
The yellow porch light sent a harsh glare on the poor little creature, still covered with the messy fluids of birth. She forced herself to walk toward it and saw at once that it was malformed and had probably been born dead.
Matt crouched beside the animal. “Dammit. Why can’t Jesse find whoever is doing this to you?”
It had to be connected to the cat left in her truck. She could see that another note had been impaled to the side of the calf with an acupuncture needle.
She didn’t want to look at it. She would rather shove the needle through her own tongue, would rather have a hundred needles jammed into every inch of her body than have to face the idea that there could be some link between this gory offering and her baby.
But there had to be. She knew it as sure as death.
“He’s got her,” she said raggedly.
Matt stared. “Who?”
“Whoever left this has Dylan. I know it.”
She couldn’t breathe suddenly, couldn’t think. Could only watch numbly while he ripped the note away to read it, then uttered a long string of oaths.
“What does it say?”
Wordlessly, he handed her the note. Her stomach heaved after she read it, and she had to press a hand to her mouth as bile choked her throat.
“If you don’t want your kid to end up like this,” the note said in that same ominous black type that had been used for the note left in her truck, “you’re going to have to prove it.”
Chapter 15
Prove it? Prove it how?
Ellie stared at the note in her hand, afraid that if she looked away from those sinister words she would find the whole world had collapsed around her. This couldn’t be happening. Salt River, Wyoming, was a slice of America. Soccer games, PTA meetings, decent, hardworking people. She would never suspect someone here could be capable of such hideous evil.
Her baby.
Someone had her little girl.
She thought of Dylan, helpless and scared and wondering where her mother was, and she felt herself sway as every drop of blood rushed from her head.
Instantly, Matt was there, folding her into his arms. “Hang on, sweetheart. Stay with me.”
“I have to find her. He has her.”
“Shh. I know. I’ll call Jess. He’ll know what to do.”
The phone in the kitchen jangled suddenly, sounding obscenely loud in the quiet house. She stared at it, then her heart began to pound. It was him. She knew it without a shadow of doubt.
She raced into the other room and grabbed the phone before it could ring again. “Where is she, you sick son of a bitch?” she snarled.
An electronically disguised voice laughed roughly in her ear. “You’ll find out. If you do what you’re told.”
“What do you want?”
“You’re still here. I thought I told you to leave. You obviously didn’t learn your lesson.”
“I’ll go. I’ll leave now, tonight. Please, just bring back my little girl.” She hated the pleading in her voice but she would have groveled to the devil himself if it would have kept her baby safe.
A bitter laugh rang in her ear. “I won’t make it that easy on you anymore. You had your chance. Now you have to cough up a hundred grand before you kiss Star Valley goodbye.”
“I don’t have that kind of money!” Sheer astonishment raised her voice at least an octave.
“You’d better find it by tomorrow noon. I’ll let you know the drop-off site.”
Before she could answer, could beg to at least talk to her daughter and make sure she was safe, the line went dead.
For several seconds, she stood in the harsh lights of her kitchen holding the phone while the dial tone buzzed in her ear. Then she carefully replaced it onto the base, collapsed into the nearest chair and buried her face in her hands.
Matt found her there when he returned to the kitchen after hanging up the extension in the bedroom. Everything in him screamed out to comfort her, but he knew he had to deal with necessities first. He called Jesse’s emergency number, then quickly and succinctly laid out for his brother what had happened.
That done, he finally could turn his attention to Ellie. He knelt by her side and pulled her trembling form into his arms. “We’ll get her back, Doc. Jesse’s a good man to have on your side. He’ll find her.”
Her breathing was fast and uneven, and she seemed as fragile as a snowflake in his arms. “Where am I going to come up with a hundred thousand dollars in cash by noon tomorrow?”
“Me.”
She stared at him, eyes dazed like a shell-shocked accident victim. “You?”
“I’ll call the bank right now and get started on the paperwork.” The ranch had a line of credit more than twice what the kidnapper was asking—plenty of credit and enough influence that he shouldn’t have any problem rushing things through.
“It’s almost seven-thirty,” she said numbly. “The bank closed hours ago.”
“The bank manager played football with me in high school. I’ll call him at home. When Rick hears the story, I know he’ll want to help, even if he has to work all night putting the ransom together.”
He could almost see the objections gather like storm clouds in her eyes. Damn stubborn woman was going to put up a fuss even now. Sure enough, she shook her head. “No. I can’t take your money. I’ll…I’ll figure something else out.”
“Like what? Sell a kidney?”
That little chin of hers tilted toward the ceiling. “I don’t know. But this is my problem, and I’ll find a way.”
It took everything in him not to reach out and shake her until her teeth rattled. This was for real. Didn’t she realize that? He didn’t have either the time or the patience to work at wearing down that brick wall of independence she insisted on building around herself.
“Look,” he snapped, “I’m going to help you, whether you want me to or not, so just deal with it.”
“This is serious money, Matt.”
“Chances are the bastard won’t get far enough away to spend even a few dollars of it before Jess finds him. I mean it, you don’t have a choice, Ellie. For once, just accept my help gracefully.”
She studied him, her green eyes murky with fear and frustration, then she crossed to the phone and ripped off a piece of paper from a pad next to it, scribbled on it for a moment, then handed it to him.
“These are my terms.”
He read it quickly, then scowled. “What the hell is this?”
“No way. Then what will you do without a clinic?”
“I’ll be leaving anyway,” she said tonelessly. “I won’t be needing it.”
He refused to think about how the idea of her leaving sliced into him like a jagged blade. “What am I supposed to do with an animal hospital? I’m a rancher, not a vet.”
“Sell it and take the profits. It won’t begin to cover what you’re loaning me, but it will be a start. I’ll have to figure out a way to pay back the rest as soon as I can.”
He wanted to crumple it up and throw it in her face, but now wasn’t the time for his temper to flare. If this was the only way she would take his help, he would let her think he was agreeing to her terms. Then he would shred the blasted thing into tiny little pieces and mail them to her.
As he pocketed the paper, a bleak resignation settled in his gut.
She was leaving, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
Her mom was gonna be so mad.
Dylan tried to keep from shivering, but it was really hard, not only because it was cool and damp on the straw-covered cement floor but also from the fear that was like a big mean dog chewing away inside her.
She didn’t have a clue where she was or who had put her here. But she did know she was in serious trouble.
This was all her fault for disobeying. Her mom told her she was always supposed to walk right to the clinic after school, and she usually did. Today, though, she’d decided to take the long way.
Cheyenne Ostermiller said her dad was going to sell her pony since she got a new horse for her birthday and that if Dylan wanted to buy it, she could probably get a good deal.
She wanted that pony so bad.
It was all she had been able to think about since lunch, when Cheyenne told her about it. All afternoon, during math and music and writer’s workshop, she hadn’t been able to do anything but daydream about having her own horse. Taking care of it, feeding it, riding anytime she wanted.
Since it didn’t look like her mom was going to marry Mr. Harte any time soon, she at least ought to be able to get a horse of her very own. It was only fair.
All she planned to do was walk by Cheyenne’s house and take a look at the paint in the pasture. Maybe make friends with him, if he’d let her. It was pretty far out of the way on the edge of town, but she figured if she hurried she’d only be a little late to the clinic and SueAnn wouldn’t even notice.
The pony had been perfect. Sweet and well-mannered and beautiful. She’d been standing there petting him and trying to figure out how she could convince her mom to buy him when she heard a truck pull up.
She hadn’t paid much attention, thinking it was probably Cheyenne’s mom or dad. Next thing she knew, somebody had grabbed her from behind and stuffed a rag that tasted like medicine into her mouth. It must have been something to put her to sleep because the next thing she knew, she woke up lying on the straw in this windowless cement room that reminded her of the quarantine room at the clinic.
She shivered again and pulled her parka closer around her. If only it were the clinic. Then she could bang on the door and bring SueAnn or her mom running.
This was newer than her mom’s clinic, though. And instead of being clean and nice, this room had an icky smell, and the straw on the cement floor didn’t seem very fresh.
Where could she be? And who would want to kidnap her?
If she weren’t so scared, she might have been able to look on this whole thing as a big adventure, something to tell Lucy and the other kids at school about. But she couldn’t help thinking about her mom and how worried she probably was and how mad she was gonna be when she found out Dylan hadn’t gone straight home after school.
Tears started burning in her throat, and she sniffled a few times, but then she made herself stop. She couldn’t be a crybaby. Not now. Crying didn’t help anything, that’s what her mom always said.
Her mom never cried. But she figured even her mom would have been a little scared a few moments later when there was a funny noise by the door then the knob started to turn.
She huddled as far into the corner as she could, her heart pounding a mile a minute, as a man walked through the door wearing a stupid-looking clown mask with scraggly yellow hair.
“You’re awake.” The voice from inside the mask sounded hollow and distorted, like when you talked into a paper cup, only a whole lot spookier.
She was afraid she was gonna pee in her pants and she was breathing as hard as she did when Mrs. Anderson made them run a mile in gym class, but she tried to stay calm, just like her mom would have done.
“Keep your hands off me. I know karate,” she lied. “I’ll kick you so hard in the you-know-where, you’ll wish you were dead.”
Through the round holes for eyes in the plastic clown mask, she could see pale blue eyes widen, and the alarm in them gave her confidence to sit up a little straighter.
“No. You’ve got this all wrong. That’s disgusting! I’m not going to touch you. Look, I just brought you a couple of blankets and a pillow. It’s cold in here. I’m sorry, but I didn’t have any place else to put you.”
She stuck her jaw in the air defiantly. “How about my house?”
The kidnapper made a sound that might have been a laugh. “Nice try. But I’m afraid that’s not possible right now. You’re stuck with me for a while, kid.”
He handed the blankets and a small pillow to her but she refused to reach for them, just continued watching him warily.
“Nobody’s going to hurt you,” he said impatiently. “Just don’t make any trouble and you’ll be back with your mom by lunchtime tomorrow, I promise.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Believe what you want. Makes no difference to me. I have to go out for a while. Are you hungry? I can pick up some dinner for you on the way back, if you want. How about a nice hamburger and some French fries from the drive-up?”
Despite her fear, her mouth watered, since she’d been too busy talking about Cheyenne’s pony to eat much of the cafeteria’s chicken surprise at lunchtime. She wasn’t about to tell him that, though, so she kept her lips stubbornly zipped.
The clown mask wobbled a little as the man sighed. “I’ll take that as a yes. I’ll be back in a little while. Maybe later, I can bring a TV in for you if that will help pass the time.”
After he left, she wanted to throw a pillow at the door. What a jerk, if he really thought he could make everything all better by bringing her a hamburger and a TV.
She wanted to go home and hug her mom and tell her she was sorry. She wanted to sleep in her own bed, not in some stinky cement room with moldy straw on the floor.
There had to be some way to get out of here. But how?
She spread one blanket on the floor, then sat down and crossed her legs and wrapped the other one around her. She could figure this out. She just had to put her mind to it.
After a minute of thinking hard, a smile suddenly crept over her face, and she knew exactly what she was going to do.
See, she had this plan….
Matt stood in the doorway between Ellie’s living room and kitchen feeling about as useful as a milk bucket under a bull.
His brother had taken over as soon as he arrived, and now Jess was on the couch holding both of Ellie’s hands while he briefed her on what was happening. “The FBI handles kidnapping cases but they can’t get agents here from Salt Lake City for at least an hour or two,” Jess was saying.
“That long?” Her voice sounded small, tight, not at all like the confident, self-assured woman he’d come to care about so much.
“I’m sorry, Ellie. It takes time to mobilize a team and send them up here by chopper. In the meantime, I have every one of my officers and as many deputies as t
he sheriff could spare out interviewing anybody who might have seen her after school. They’ll keep in constant contact and let us know if anything breaks.”
She drew in a ragged-sounding breath, and Jesse squeezed her hands. “Dispatch is getting call after call from people wanting to help look for her. Your buddy Steve Nichols has offered to head up the volunteer search effort and he’s getting plenty of support. Nobody in town wants to believe something like this could happen in Star Valley.”
“Thank you so much for everything you’re doing,” she said softly.
Jess’s mouth twisted into a reassuring smile. “We’ll find her, El. I promise.”
Given the circumstances, Matt was ashamed of himself for the powerful urge raging through him to yank his little brother off the couch and shove him out the door.
It really chapped his hide that she could sit there looking all grateful to Jess for what he was doing to help find Dylan and still go all prickly at Matt’s offer to help.
She wouldn’t grab Matt’s hand if she were drowning, yet she seemed to think Jess hung the damn moon.
All this time, he thought she just had a hard time letting anyone help her. Now he realized it was only him whose help she didn’t want. Why? Was it only his brother’s badge that made the difference?
He cared about her a whole hell of a lot more than Jess did. They had a relationship, as stormy as it had been. So why did she continue to push him away?
“You’ve been so kind,” she said to his brother, and Matt decided he’d taken just about all he could.
“I’m going to call Rick about getting started on the ransom,” he said abruptly, daring either of them to argue with him. Her kid was a lot more important than his hurt feelings, and he needed to keep that uppermost in his mind. “I’ll use my cell phone so I don’t tie up your line here.”
He stalked outside and noticed the temperature had dropped. A cold wind howled out of the south, promising an end to the January thaw. He barely felt it sneaking through his coat as he made his way to his truck, ashamed of himself for letting his temper get the better of him.