“Good.” Her dad opened the door of her vehicle. “If you need any help, let me know, but Dallas is a top-notch Texas Ranger. Listen to his instincts and advice.” He hugged her. “Katie will be fine.”
She gave him a smile, then slipped behind the steering wheel and left the small ranch in the foothills north of San Antonio. As she drove toward Cimarron Trail, she went over in her head what she needed to do after the press conference. A trip to Chesterfield Shopping Center. She needed a clue that led her to the couple, and if it wasn’t Lenora’s trip last Friday, then maybe the prints taken from the bracelet would match someone in the database.
As she reached the winding part of the two-lane highway to town, she wondered how Michelle and Dallas did last night. She doubted he got much sleep in his daughter’s hospital room. She realized that she would need to talk to Michelle today, too.
She took a sharp turn, spied a spiked chain across the road and slammed on the brakes—too late. Her car rolled over the spikes and headed toward the drop off.
FOUR
Dallas stared out of the hospital window at a new day, trying to figure out how he could be in two places at once. He didn’t want to leave Michelle, but his nephew was in danger. If it truly was a baby smuggling ring, they might not stay in the area long. Time was crucial to locating Brady.
Lord, what do I do? Where am I needed the most?
Below he glimpsed his mother’s car turning into the parking lot. She’d mentioned last night she would come back first thing this morning, but maybe she should be with Lenora. The last time he’d talked with his mother, at midnight, his sister hadn’t said much to Mom or Paul. Lenora had insisted on staying up until her son was brought home. She was positive it would happen at any moment.
“Have you found Brady, Daddy?”
His daughter’s soft voice interrupted his thoughts. He swung around and faced her. “No, not yet, honey, but it’s been less than a day.”
Tears sprang up in Michelle’s eyes. “I should never have opened the door.”
Dallas moved quickly to the side of her hospital bed and took hold of her hand. “The man came into the house by the back porch door. He kicked it in. You wouldn’t have been able to stop him.”
“But I could have called for help sooner.”
“It wouldn’t have stopped the kidnapping, and you could have been injured even more than you were.”
Michelle glanced around the room. “I want to leave the hospital.”
“I’m sorry, but not until the doctor says it’s okay. Have you remembered anything else about yesterday? Maybe about what the woman looked like?”
Her eyelids closed. “No, the blond hair is all I really noticed. It happened so fast.”
The sound of the door swishing open drew Dallas’s attention to his mother entering the room. Michelle’s eyes popped open.
“Grandma, I’m glad to see you. Now Daddy can go find Brady. He won’t leave me here alone. Can you stay?”
“Of course. That’s why I’m here. Has the doctor seen you this morning?”
“No,” Michelle replied, quickly followed by Dallas saying, “He won’t be here until after lunch. Are you sure you’re not needed at Lenora’s, Mom?”
His mom squared her shoulders and fixed her gaze on Dallas. “Positive. Lenora woke me up this morning and asked me to come here to be with Michelle. The family needs you to do your job. Don’t worry about us. Find Brady.”
He wanted to be in both places at the same time—a father and a law enforcement officer. His ex-wife had accused him of loving his job more than his family. He didn’t want his daughter to feel the same. These past three years he’d walked a tightrope between the two. But now it wasn’t strangers who needed him. It was his family. “Okay, princess, but I expect your grandma to keep me informed of everything, and I’ll be here to take you home from the hospital.” He leaned over and kissed Michelle’s cheek. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, Daddy.”
He grabbed his cowboy hat and set it on his head. “Mom, may I have a word with you?”
“Sweetie, I’ll be right in the hallway,” his mother said to Michelle, then followed him from the room.
Dallas stood in the hall across from the deputy standing guard at the door and said to his mother, “Keep trying to see if Michelle remembers anything else about the lady who came to Lenora’s. Have her try to sketch her.”
His mom nodded.
“And call me if there’s any problems. After the press conference, there are some leads the sheriff and I are going to run down.”
“What leads?”
“Sheriff Young and I are retracing Lenora’s steps when she lost her bracelet last Friday. We’re pursuing information about the tire tracks on the dirt road behind their house and talking to the hands at the Fowler Ranch, although according to Houston Fowler his employees don’t use that back road. That gate to the ranch is usually locked.” Last night Rachel had texted him about that and other pieces of information they’d discovered. “Since cattle were rustled from his ranch, the place is a fortress. I’m hoping one of his men saw something but didn’t realize it.”
She patted Dallas’s arm. “You don’t have to worry about Michelle. No one will get to her while I’m standing guard.”
That was all he needed. His mother getting hurt. “Mom, let the deputy do his job. You’re with Michelle for emotional support and to ease my guilt that I’m leaving her.”
“Sure, honey.” She gave him a grin and a wink, then hurried back into his daughter’s hospital room.
He shook his head as he left the Cimarron Trail Regional Hospital. The drive to the sheriff’s office only took ten minutes. When he arrived, he pulled into the last parking space at the side of the building. Inside the station, a small crowd had already gathered. He made his way through the twenty people, some with microphones and others with cameras, like a group of sharks swarming chummed water searching for tidbits. Standing at the front was Marvin Compton, looking self-righteous, as though he’d already solved the case.
Dallas caught sight of Deputy Jones at the front, facing the reporters, and approached the chief deputy sheriff. “Where’s Rachel?”
“She’s not here. I called her phone, but she isn’t answering.”
“Where does she live?”
“With her parents on Bill’s Safe Haven Ranch until she finds a place of her own.”
Dallas looked over the growing crowd. “That’s twenty minutes northeast of town. How’s the cell reception out that way?”
“Good except for a few patchy places.”
“I’ll start the press conference. You try calling her again.”
Dallas stepped up to the podium and waited a moment while the reporters became silent. “I’m Texas Ranger Dallas Sanders. I’m helping the sheriff’s office on this investigation at the request of Sheriff Young.” He told the press what little they had, and ended with, “If anyone has a lead about this case, please come forward. There is a twenty-five-thousand-dollar reward for information leading to an arrest.”
Paul had called him earlier and told him he would find the money somehow if it would help bring Brady home sooner, and Dallas had promised to help him with the reward. “Please contact the sheriff’s office if you have any information concerning this case. I would appreciate y’all getting the word out about the reward. Thank you for coming today.” He started to step away from the podium in a barrage of questions from the reporters, but he stopped when one sounded louder than the others.
“Where is Sheriff Young? Is she shirking her job after only eleven days?”
Dallas faced the man who asked the question—Marvin Compton, the sore loser who’d lost the election for sheriff recently. The crowd quieted, sensing a confrontation, but Dallas wouldn’t give the press another story instead of the kidnapping. He narrowed his gaze on Compton,
waited till there was silence, then replied, “Sheriff Young, in spite of her injuries yesterday, is working diligently on the case.”
Before the reporters surrounded him, Dallas marched toward the back of the station with Deputy Jones. “Did you get hold of the sheriff?” he asked quietly.
“Still no answer. I called Bill directly. He said she left over thirty minutes ago. I told him we’ll check it out, that he should stay at his ranch. With this abduction yesterday, what if something happened to Katie? Rachel’s number-one priority is her daughter.”
“I understand. That was a good call. I’m heading out to the ranch now. I’ll find her. She might have had car trouble in one of those spotty cell reception areas.” Dallas hoped that was all it was. “If I need backup, I’ll call you. I have a satellite phone.”
“Great. We’re shorthanded right now because so many are out canvassing the area around your sister’s house, especially to see if anyone has security video of the street.”
“Good. Let me know if anything comes of the canvass.”
Dallas made his way to the station’s back door and hoped the reporters didn’t disperse until he’d driven out of the parking lot. He didn’t want any of them following him.
As he headed out of town, he kept an eye on the cars behind him. So far it appeared he’d gotten away without a tail.
When he turned onto the two-lane highway that led to Bill’s ranch, he kept his gaze sweeping from one side of the road to the other. After a few miles, he called Rachel’s cell phone. Its continual ringing didn’t bode well.
* * *
The constant ringing of her phone mocked Rachel’s attempts to free herself from her locked seat belt while hanging upside down. She couldn’t release the button on the side. She wished she was in her sheriff’s cruiser, but because of budget cuts, no one could take a squad car home. In it, her location could have been tracked which would be easier than trying to track her cell phone. Although as sheriff she could have used a department vehicle, her dad hadn’t done so when the decision had been made, and she had followed suit.
The ringing stopped. The scent of gasoline mingled with the dust her vehicle had stirred up. Smoke snaked from the engine. So far, she hadn’t seen flames, but if a fire started...
The thought of her car exploding scared her.
Rachel gave her tight seat belt another jerk, but it didn’t budge. Frustrated, she stared at her phone lying on the roof of the front passenger seat, up next to the shattered window. She leaned as far to the right as the seat belt would allow and extended her arm as far as she could toward her cell, but she was at least a foot from it.
Another call came through. Again, she tried to answer it, her sore body protesting the stretch. The belt cut into her body, making it hard to breathe. Trapped.
There had to be a way out of the car.
Please, God, help me. Katie needs me. The words came unbidden into her mind. She hadn’t prayed in a couple of years. She’d given up on the Lord when her life fell apart, and all she’d gotten was silence.
Yet again, she yanked on the black strap. When her hand brushed against the pouch on her utility belt, she immediately knew what she needed to do. If she could get inside the bag, she could get her switchblade out. Why hadn’t she thought about this ten minutes ago? She twisted to the left and fumbled for the snap. When she found it, she tugged it and it opened. She dug into the pouch and grasped the knife. As she slid her hand out, she nearly lost her grip on it. Her heart pounded double time as she clasped it safely and flicked the blade free.
Finally, she freed herself. With her dangling arms to cushion her, she fell against the roof of the car. Her left shoulder, where the seat belt had cut into her already aching body, took the brunt of the fall. She drew in deep breaths, her lungs filling with the smoky air laden with the aroma of gasoline and earth. She coughed and shifted toward her side window, a section splintered and hard to see out of. She started to slam her elbow into it when she caught sight of flames shooting out from under the hood.
Fire!
She hit the glass, pain shooting up her arm. The window remained intact.
What now?
* * *
Dallas tried again to call Rachel’s cell phone, but it rang until it went to voice mail.
“Rachel, this is Dallas. Please call ASAP.” He’d already left that message the last time. Frustrated, he tagged on, “Please,” as though that would make a difference.
In his gut, he knew she was in trouble.
He continued his vigilant search for her as he drove toward Bill’s ranch.
Boom!
Was that an explosion?
He scanned the terrain in the direction the sound had come from. A plume of smoke mushroomed into the sky, and Dallas increased his speed, a vision of Rachel in trouble driving his urgency. His heart raced. His grip on the steering wheel tightened as he came closer to the smoke rising into the sky.
Please, Lord, protect Rachel.
As he neared the site, he glimpsed a car in flames at the bottom of an incline. He quickly parked on the shoulder of the road, making sure his SUV was visible in both directions if someone came around the curve. After he hopped from his Jeep, he hurried to the rear and grabbed a fire extinguisher from the cargo space, then descended the slope, sliding down most of the way.
He didn’t know what Rachel’s personal car looked like, but he knew this was hers. He raced to the vehicle and used the fire extinguisher to spray the flames while he tried to make out the inside of the car. Coming closer to the driver’s side, his pulse pounding against his temples, he spied an empty seat.
As he continued fighting the blaze, he searched the area, his gaze latching onto Rachel, with black smudges and tiny cuts on her face, rising slowly from behind a large boulder not far from her car. He finished putting out the last of the fire, then dropped the extinguisher to the ground and ran to Rachel, who had a dazed expression on her face.
“Are you all right?” All he wanted to do was wrap his arms around her and assure her he would protect her.
She wiggled her finger in her ear. “Now I am,” she said in a loud voice, as though her hearing was still off.
“Where are you hurt?”
“I’m okay.”
His gaze ran down her, from her messy hair to her dirty uniform, and he shouted, “Sure! You were just in a wreck and almost blown up! Unless you have secret powers I don’t know about, I’d say at the very least you’ve been jerked around like riding a bull that tossed you up in the air and tried to gore you.”
“That’s a good description of how I’m feeling. Sore and bruised, but nothing broken.”
“What happened?”
“I ran over a spiked chain strung across the road when I came around a curve.”
“Did you see anyone?”
“No. I was trying to keep my car on the road, but it went into a spin, then plunged off the highway. I honestly don’t remember much except ending up hanging upside down with a tight seat belt I couldn’t release.”
While Dallas withdrew his cell phone, he swept the area for any sign of life. When he noticed he had cell reception, he said, “I’m calling this in, then I’m taking you to the ER to be checked out.”
“I’m fine. I can walk.” She took several steps away from him.
“With a limp.”
She grinned. “I was just tossed around in a car tumbling down the mountain.”
“Mountain!” He laughed. “More like a small hill.” He placed calls to the sheriff’s office and to her father, then took pictures of the wrecked car from different angles.
She walked to the front passenger window and looked inside. “I’m going to have to buy a new cell phone. Mine was charred.” She scanned the ground, walked a few feet and picked up something. “But my purse has been saved.”
“Good. Ready?”
She nodded and limped to the bottom of the sixty-degree incline, then glanced back at him. “I’m going to need some help.”
Moving toward her, Dallas slipped his cell phone into his pocket, then slung his arm over her shoulders. “And I was going to ask you to help me. I slid most of the way down here.”
She chuckled. “It’s steep, but all I want is someone next to me in case my leg gives way.”
“I can do that.” He smiled down at her, feeling the warmth of her against his side. Relief shivered through him. He’d found her alive. Thank you, Lord.
Five minutes later, Dallas hoisted her up the last few feet, which were at an almost ninety-degree angle, onto the shoulder of the road, her body flush against his as he steadied her. For several long seconds she remained near him, sending his heart beating faster than before.
Staring into her face, he could see beads of sweat on her forehead. “Okay?”
“Yes. A shower and a fresh uniform is all I need. Can you drive me back to Dad’s? It won’t take me long, then we can head to Chesterfield Shopping Center.”
He frowned. “With a stop first at the hospital to have a doctor check you out.”
“We’ve already lost too much time. I’m sore but fine. If I’m still feeling bad later today, I’ll let you take me to the hospital after going to the shopping center.”
Instead of saying anything else, Dallas pointed toward two deputy sheriff’s cars. “Backup has arrived.”
After Rachel talked with Deputies Jones and Ellis about what happened, Dallas drove her to Bill’s ranch, filling her in on how the press conference went. Dallas waited outside on the porch with her father, both of them sitting in rocking chairs. The view of rolling green hills with black wooden fences stretched out before Dallas.
He set his cowboy hat on his lap. “Rachel said this is more an animal sanctuary than a working ranch.”
“About half and half. Deputy Rob Woodward retired when I did and finds even more animals in need of a home than I do. He lives in the small house on the other side of the barn. He helps me and in turn gets free room and board. It’s been a good deal for both of us.” Leaning back, Bill crossed his legs. “My daughter played down what happened to her, so tell me what’s really going on. I could ask some of the deputies who used to work for me, but I don’t want them to think I don’t have confidence in Rachel. I do. But I didn’t have a big case in the first few weeks of my job. She does, plus she has Marvin pointing out everything he thinks she’s doing wrong.”
Texas Baby Pursuit Page 5