Her Silent Spring

by Melinda Woodhall

  The girl pulled off the gardening gloves she’d been wearing and started toward the house.

  “You’d better come quickly, Miss…”

  Mack raised his eyebrows as if searching for her name.

  “Skylar,” she said. “I’m Skylar Lee.”

  “Okay, Skylar, I can show you where your cat is if you want, but we’d better get going. It’s in some pain and…”

  Dropping the gloves on the ground, Skylar crossed the yard toward him, and Mack turned and headed back toward the van, adrenaline coursing through his veins as she followed him.

  The van sat by the curb, and Mack waved Skylar around to the other side as he slid the cargo door open.

  “I put him in here so he wouldn’t get run over,” he said, leaning into the van’s interior and reaching for the syringe.

  Skylar looked in after him, a frown creasing the smooth skin of her brow as she saw the empty cargo hold.

  “I’m sorry,” Mack said, as he put a hand over her mouth and plunged the needle into the soft flesh of her arm. “This will let you sleep. When you wake up, it’ll all be over, and we’ll be together.”

  Bundling her small figure into the back of the van, Mack climbed in after her and closed the door behind them.

  He held her tightly against him, staring into her disbelieving green eyes until they’d closed. Once her struggles had stopped, he checked to make sure she was still breathing, then climbed into the driver’s seat and headed toward Windy Harbor Airfield.

  He wouldn’t have long before they’d figure out Skylar was gone. He needed to get back to the plane fast. He needed to be up in the air before they tried to stop him.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Mack waved at the security guard outside the Windy Harbor Airfield, steering the white cargo van past the little security booth without stopping.

  The guard was accustomed to seeing Mack come and go from the airfield several times a month. He knew the white van belonged to an anonymous LLC that paid a considerable annual fee for the private use of two hangars, and that the men coming in and out didn’t take kindly to questions or interest in their activities.

  Pulling the van into one of the hangars, Mack was relieved to see the Cessna parked just where he’d left it. At first glance, there didn’t appear to be anyone around.

  But as Mack stepped out of the van, he saw Beau Sparks smoking a cigarette outside the hangar. The man’s blonde head was turned toward the west, where a small plane had just taken off into the crystal blue sky.

  Mack hadn’t thought his plan through, and he suddenly panicked, unsure how to get Skylar past the big blonde man unseen.

  Moving silently to the rear of the van, Mack put a hand on the hidden holster around his waist, assuring himself that his Ruger was loaded and ready for use if needed.

  He still hadn’t come up with a plan when Beau threw down his cigarette butt and turned toward the van. Mack ducked down and waited as Beau walked over and looked in the front window.

  After a pause, he moved back to the side door and slid it open. Knowing he only had moments to act, Mack pulled out his Ruger and stepped up behind Beau, who was gaping into the back at Skylar’s unconscious body.

  “Don’t make a sound or I’ll put a bullet in your gut.”

  Mack’s words startled Beau, and he twisted around with wide eyes, instinctively raising his hands.

  “What are you-”

  “Shut up,” Mack growled, sliding the door closed again, and waving the gun toward the hangar. “Get in the plane.”

  Beau darted his eyes behind Mack, but there was no one nearby. No one that could get to him in time to stop a bullet.

  “Go on,” Mack ordered. “And don’t try to run. I’d have no problem ending this right here. I should have ended this years ago. Maybe decades.”

  Urging Beau toward the hangar, Mack checked his watch, knowing he didn’t have long. Someone was bound to show up soon, and he needed to be gone before they arrived.

  Mack followed Beau onto the Cessna and motioned for him to move toward the rear. He knew what he had to do. He’d been looking forward to this moment for a long time.

  “You still don’t understand, do you?” he asked, shaking his head in disgust. “You still don’t know Summer didn’t drown that night. You don’t know she left with me.”

  Confusion mixed with the fear in Beau’s face.

  “But…why did she leave?”

  “She wanted to get away from you,” Mack sneered. “She saw you kissing that whore and she wanted to get as far away from you as possible.”

  Beau shook his head.

  “And you…killed her?”

  Lifting his arm, Mack pointed the Ruger straight at Beau.

  “I would never have hurt Summer,” he spit out, fury causing his hand to shake as it gripped the gun. “I took her to Silent Meadows to tell her how I felt, but Donnie was there, and he…he wanted her.”

  “You mean Donovan Locke took Summer, and you didn’t stop him?’

  Mack nodded, his eyes bitter.

  “Donnie always got what he wanted.”

  “And what about June?” Beau asked, his eyes widening at the sudden suspicion. “Did you …”

  Again, Mack nodded.

  “She was gonna tell the FBI agent everything she knew,” Mack said., then scoffed. “Even though she didn’t know the truth.”

  Stepping closer to Beau, Mack lifted his chin in defiance.

  “June only saw what I wanted her to see,” he taunted. “She only saw you on the dock passed out drunk.”

  “You were there? You saw me?”

  Beau’s eyes stayed on the Ruger as he spoke.

  “I wanted to make it look like Summer drowned, so I put your letter jacket in the boat,” Mack admitted. “I knew it would take a few days for them to figure out she wasn’t in the lake. It’d give me time to come up with a story.”

  Mack’s voice suddenly sounded amused.

  “Then you and June showed up and assumed she’d jumped in.”

  He shook his head and uttered an ugly laugh.

  “As if Summer Fairfax would have killed herself over you. Of course, June’s idea to write a note saved me a lot of trouble.”

  Inching even closer, Mack’s voice lowered to a deep growl.

  “But then she had to go and try to involve the feds. Once they started tearing apart her story, they’d have questioned everyone at the party. Everyone in the area.”

  Mack’s eyes were bright with rage.

  “They might even have started snooping around the old house. If they started poking around Silent Meadows, it would be all over.”

  Looking up from the gun, Beau cleared his throat.

  “I thought that old place had been torn down,” he said. “I thought your old man lost it along with everything else.”

  “Don’t you talk about my father,” Mack hissed.

  “You’re just like him,” Beau insisted. “He was a loser and a crook, and no matter how much you’ve tried to distance yourself from him, you’ve always been covered in his disgrace.”

  With those words Beau charged, lunging toward Mack with sudden speed. He barreled into Mack’s outstretched hand just as the gun went off, and his body slumped to the floor with a soft grunt, pulling Mack down with him.

  Mack pushed Beau off of him and struggled to his feet. He looked down at the man he’d known since childhood with a pitiless stare, then began to drag the heavy body back to the rear of the cargo hold.

  He needed to hurry if he wanted to get Skylar onto the plane before anyone else arrived.

  The girl had been injected with just enough of his magic mixture to make her sleep for a few hours, and he wanted to be in the sky and headed home before she woke up.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Veronica sat next to Detective Vanzinger in the cramped hospital security office staring at the little black and white screen, while Frankie hovered behind them. They were all waiting to view security footage from the camera
mounted in the corridor outside Peyton’s hospital room.

  After Peyton’s startling claim that she’d seen her attacker at her door, it had taken a while for Frankie and Vanzinger to track down the proper security personnel, but they’d quickly convinced them to pull the video recorded during the hour before Veronica had arrived.

  Just as the video began to play, Veronica’s phone buzzed in her pocket. Knowing that Hunter might be trying to call her from Sky Lake, Veronica pulled out her phone.

  Ling Li’s photo appeared on the display above her number. Veronica was tempted to send the call to voicemail. She could call her mother back once she’d viewed the video and they’d identified Peyton’s attacker.

  “Don’t keep your mom waiting,” Frankie said over her shoulder. “It’s not a good habit to get into, I should know.”

  Glancing back at the PI and rolling her eyes, Veronica thumbed Accept Call and held the phone to her ear.

  “Skylar’s gone,” Ling cried into the phone. “She’s not in the house or the garden, and the back gate’s been left open.”

  “Slow down, Ma,” Veronica said, feeling her stomach drop at the thought of her young sister out on her own. “She’s probably just gone for a walk or something.”

  Pushing back the irrational fear that Skylar had been abducted, Veronica forced herself to take a deep breath and keep her tone calm. She didn’t want to add to her mother’s alarm.

  “Hold on and I’ll check her location, Ma,” she said, pulling out her phone. “She’s been wearing my old Apple watch lately, so I should be able to track her on the Find My Phone app.”

  Veronica tapped on the app and waited for it to load. As she stared at the dots on the map, her eyes widened in disbelief.

  “Skylar’s at the Windy Harbor Airfield.”

  Looking back at Frankie, she stared at him with stunned eyes, as her mother’s voice erupted on the other end of the line.

  “Stay at the house, Ma, in case Skylar comes back,” Veronica ordered, talking over her mother. “I’m with Detective Vanzinger now, and we’ll figure out what’s going on.”

  She stared over at Vanzinger’s grim face as she spoke.

  “We’ll find her, Ma. Just lock up the house and sit tight. I’ll call you back as soon as I know anything.”

  Vanzinger spoke up as she ended the call.

  “Windy Harbor Airfield is where the joint task force was planning an operation to take down a trafficker named Mack,” he said. “We think he’s based in Sky Lake.”

  He pulled out his phone as he continued.

  “Amber Sloan had become an informant before she was killed, and she was going to set him up. Only we think he got to her first.”

  “So, you think this guy was the one who attacked Peyton?” Veronica asked with growing dread. “You think he could still be in Willow Bay, and that he could have abducted Skylar?”

  Frankie answered before Vanzinger could.

  “He’s in Willow Bay, and from what we know, he’s capable of almost anything.” Frankie crossed to the door. “But if Skylar’s with him, I bet he’s trying to leave town. Trying to get back to Sky Lake.”

  “Where are you going, Frankie?” Vanzinger asked.

  “I’m going to stop him,” Frankie called over his shoulder. “Stay here and watch out for Peyton. And let Nessa know what’s going on.”

  Holding up the phone in his hand, Vanzinger nodded.

  “I’m calling her now, but…”

  The door closed behind Frankie as Veronica turned to Vanzinger.

  “Watch the video and find out who was here,” she pleaded, backing toward the door. “Whoever he is, he may have Skylar.”

  Vanzinger held up his hands.

  “Now where are you going?” he asked.

  “I’m going to drive Frankie to Windy Harbor,” she said. “From what I remember, he doesn’t have a car.”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  The big red Jeep sped northbound on Old Shepard Highway as Frankie stared down at Veronica’s phone with desperate eyes. The app was no longer picking up the signal for the Apple Watch, and the dot on the map was gone.

  “Can’t you go any faster?’ he asked, leaning forward in his seat.

  Ignoring his question, Veronica kept her eyes on the road.

  “So, you flew into Windy Harbor Airfield this morning?” she asked. “How did you manage that?”

  “Tom Locke flew me down here,” he admitted. “I guess I should have told you that earlier. He’s actually a really nice guy.”

  Veronica wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly.

  “You’re telling me you let Donovan Locke’s adopted brother fly you from Sky Lake to Willow Bay?”

  “He works at an Air Charter company and I needed a way home,” Frankie explained, pulling out his phone. “He might still be at the airfield. Maybe he could help us look for Skylar.”

  Staring over at Frankie, a terrible possibility occurred to her.

  “Could Tom Locke be the man who attacked Peyton?” she asked. “Could he be this Mack guy the fed and WBPD are trying to find?”

  Frankie shook his head.

  “No way,” he said in a firm voice. “I mean, Tom’s a bit strange, but he’s a good guy. He’s not the killer type.”

  Shifting in his seat, he looked down at his phone again.

  “Besides, Peyton was attacked last night,” he added. “And Tom was in Sky Lake.”

  Veronica wasn’t convinced.

  “He flew you down here pretty fast this morning. Who’s to say he didn’t fly down to Willow Bay yesterday as well.”

  Digging out his phone, Frankie scrolled to recent calls.

  “The guy even gave me his number in case I wanted to keep in touch,” he said, tapping on the screen. “Would a killer do that?”

  Veronica listened as Frankie waited for Tom to answer. Just as he was pulling his phone away from his ear, a voice sounded on the other end of the connection.

  “You back in Sky Lake, already?” Frankie asked.

  He darted a look at Veronica as he lifted the phone back to his ear. Whatever Tom said caused Frankie to sit up straight in his seat.

  “Sheriff Holt’s one crazy dude,” Frankie finally responded. “But I need a favor. A girl I know is missing, and we think whoever took her is heading your way. We should be there any minute.”

  Disconnecting the call, Frankie shook his head and whistled.

  “Sheriff Holt from Sky Lake flew down here after me,” Frankie said. “The guy thinks I killed some lady up there and he’s raising hell down here looking for me. Even threatened to arrest Tom if he took the plane without permission again.”

  “So, Tom stole the plane you guys flew down here?”

  Veronica was growing more suspicious by the minute.

  “Is he still at the airfield?”

  “Yep, and we’re about to be there, too,” Frankie said. “The turn off is just up there on the right.”

  Pulling the red Jeep up to the security booth, Veronica rolled down her window. The security guard put down his copy of the Willow Bay Gazette and looked over at Veronica with a scowl.

  “You two know where you’re going?”

  “We’re trying to find my younger sister,” Veronica said, pulling out a photo of Skylar. “Have you seen her?”

  The guard adjusted his glasses and studied the photo.

  “No, I haven’t seen her.”

  He handed the photo back and picked up his paper.

  “Do you keep records of who’s going in and out of here?’ she asked, frustrated by the man’s indifferent attitude.

  “No, we don’t,” he said. “We’re a private airfield. We don’t bother our customers with paperwork. They pay us so they can land and park their planes without the hassles of a commercial airport.”

  Waving a hand at the guard, Frankie urged Veronica to drive on.

  “I think I know where we’re going.”

  He squinted through the windshield, pointing ahead to a row o
f big, white buildings.

  “The hangar where Tom parked the plane is up ahead. He said Sparks Air Charter delivers shipments down here on a regular basis, so they rent out space.”

  A tall, lanky figure stepped out from one of the hangars as they approached. Veronica recognized him as one of the men she’d seen in the diner the day June Taggert had been killed.

  Steering the Jeep toward the hangar, she looked past Tom to see a small plane parked inside, but there was no sign of Skylar.

  “Beau left a message saying he brought Sheriff Holt down here in one of the planes,” Tom said, as Frankie stepped out of the Jeep. “But now he’s not answering my call.”

  Veronica studied Tom’s earnest face as he spoke. He seemed tired, and a little confused. She couldn’t imagine him having the energy to abduct anyone.

  Catching Veronica’s assessing gaze, Tom dropped his eyes.

  “I think Beau must have flown back already,” he said, directing the words at Frankie. “He probably needed to get home.”

  “Could Beau have taken Skylar with him?” Veronica asked.

  She pictured the men in the Frisky Colt Diner and remembered how the handsome blonde man had stared at Skylar.

  “Is that why we can’t find her on the app?”

  Tom frowned in confusion.

  “Who’s Skylar?” he asked, looking at Frankie.

  Frankie pulled out the photo of Skylar and handed it to Tom.

  “Oh, yeah. She’s the one who went and visited my Ma,” Tom said. “Ma told me she looked a lot like Summer Fairfax.”

  “She’s Summer’s daughter.” Veronica’s words caught in her throat. “And my sister.”

  Giving a sad nod, Tom handed the photo back to Frankie.

  “Ma said both of those poor girls were born too pretty for their own good,” he added. “You say Skylar’s missing?”

  “Yes, she is,” Veronica said, feeling the panic starting to rise inside her as the seconds ticked by. “Can you take us to find her? Can you fly us up to Sky Lake?”

  Chapter Forty

  Nessa stood up and stretched her back, sore from sitting in the little viewing room for the last hour. She and Agent Marlowe had been watching Jankowski and Ramirez question Ivan Sokolov about his connection to Mack, and it had been slow going.