by K. J. Dahlen
"Can you get to the farm and stop him?" Roger asked Cole. Cole looked at Sam and shook his head.
"He knows the river too well. We have to wait until daylight to start out. He'd be there long before then," Cole explained to his parents.
"He's traveling by boat?" Roger asked.
Cole nodded. "We thought we had him, but he slipped past us a day or so ago"
"We had him at the farm earlier today, but he managed to get away from us then too, didn't he?" Sam pointed out.
Cole shot Sam a dirty look. He hadn't wanted to be reminded about that, and he certainly didn't want his parents to know what he'd done.
"Why can't you travel at night by boat?" Roger asked.
"We don't know the river well enough," Sam told him. "We could drive, if we could borrow your car."
"I travel up and down the river all the time. I could take you back upriver," Roger volunteered. "If he's on the water, that would be your best chance of catching him. If you drive, you might beat him to the farm, but you'll miss the chance to catch him without putting anyone else at risk. If his family is with him, he might be willing to leave them unharmed in order to escape"
Cole raised his eyebrows and looked at Sam. "It makes sense. If we give him too much time to plan his next move, he won't hesitate to slit their throats. Besides, he wouldn't expect us to travel at night. We could be there shortly after he docks "
Sam nodded. "Let's go, then. I want to get there before anything happens to Wyatt"
"Who's Wyatt?" Emily asked as they headed out the front door.
"Wyatt is my six-year-old son who your nephew took hostage a few days ago. He's one of the reasons I'm here," Sam told her.
"What is the other reason?" Emily asked.
"Tucker murdered my wife almost three weeks ago"
Emily's eyes widened in shock. Now she had more reason to be afraid for her sister's family.
When they all got back to the boat, Sam noticed something different about the vessel. He swore as the others noticed the same thing he just had. The boat was listing to one side. Tucker had rammed the side of the boat, damaging the hull's integrity. There was no way they could go anywhere in this boat. They had just missed him again.
Sam looked over at Roger. "You wouldn't happen to have another boat, would you?"
Roger nodded. "As a matter of fact, I do. It's only a pontoon, but it will get us to where we have to go"
"Where is it?" Sam asked.
"Why don't we go get it, and Cole and Emily can wait here?" Roger suggested. Cole nodded his agreement and watched as Sam and his father left the dock.
Emily folded her arms closer to her chest. The evening air had a chill that had nothing to do with the weather. "What's going to happen?" she asked her son. "To Tucker, I mean"
Cole looked out at the river rather than at his mother. He didn't want to be the one to answer her question. He didn't want to tell her that he might have to kill his cousin.
"Did he really kill that man's wife?" Emily finally asked.
Cole nodded. "Her name was Chloe. Tucker murdered her just to get Sam to come after him. He wanted Sam because he decided that Sam was the best he could find"
"The best what he could find?" Emily asked.
Cole looked at his mother. "The best cop, he claims. You see, no one has been able to catch him all these years, and Tucker decided to make Sam come after him by killing Sam's wife and taking his son hostage. This gives Sam a motive to keep coming after Tucker until he finally catches him. At least that's what Tucker told Sam yesterday."
Emily gasped. "Oh my gracious."
Cole nodded and looked back at the river. "We may never know just how many others Tucker has killed over the years. We know of at least seven women and three men, maybe more"
"He killed men too?"
"He finds someone that has something he wants, and he kills them and takes over their lives," Cole told her. "He's done that at least three times that we know about. He has assumed at least three different identities in the last year. One of the men was a boat salesman from New Orleans. Another was a computer troubleshooter from Myrtle Grove, Louisiana. At the farm we found more than one other form of identity. We haven't had time to check on the third man and the others yet."
"Why would he do something like this?" Emily asked.
Cole shrugged. It was hard to say why anybody did anything. Tucker had gotten very good at hiding from the law, and everyone else, for that matter.
An hour later they were on their way up the river. Emily was strangely quiet, and Roger kept looking at her. He could only imagine what she had found out while they were gone.
The river was calm and serene that night, and the gentle rocking of the boat had clearly made Sam tired, as he'd fallen asleep shortly after they'd left the dock.
"What on earth did you tell your mother?" Roger asked his son after noticing that Emily had also fallen asleep and they were the only ones awake.
Cole shrugged. "She asked if Tucker had really killed Sam's wife. I told her that he had"
Roger was quiet for a moment. He knew what family meant to his wife, what it meant to him, and he couldn't think of one reason why this was happening to his family. "What else did she ask about?"
"She wanted to know why Tucker was doing all this," Cole told him.
"What did you tell her?"
Cole shrugged. "What could I tell her? I don't know the reasons myself."
Roger knew his son very well, and he knew that there was something else he wanted to talk about but didn't know how to bring it up. "Something else bothering you?" he asked Cole.
Cole looked at his dad and then out at the water. "I was just wondering what I ever did to Tucker to really tick him off. He said that we have issues to settle, but I can't think of what they are. I mean, we had almost the same things growing up. Whatever I got, he did too"
"Maybe that was the problem" Roger thought out loud. "We were so used to you two being thought of as twins that we treated you boys like brothers, and you weren't. You were two totally different boys, and yet we treated you the same"
Cole nodded. "I thought that too, at first. Maybe he resented being treated like my brother, but he never said so. If something is bothering you, you speak up and tell someone about your feelings. Tucker never did that. At least, I don't remember him doing that."
Roger didn't speak for a moment. "Maybe he did, but we just didn't listen."
"You can beat yourself up about it all you want, but nobody did anything to make him a killer. He had the choice to make, and he made it a long time ago," Cole told his father.
"He's still your cousin," Roger pointed out.
"By birth he's family, but he stopped being my cousin a long time ago. Anybody can accidentally hurt someone one time, but Tucker goes out of his way to inflict pain and misery on people. He didn't have to keep on killing-he chose to. He got good at it. He took pride in his work. He stopped thinking about us as family years ago. Now he's just another monster who has to be stopped" Cole looked at his father. "Sam won't let him get away this time. By tomorrow, Tucker will either be dead or going to jail for the rest of his life, and I can't really see him going to jail-not after all this."
Roger was quiet as he considered Cole's words. He knew his son was right. Tucker had to be stopped.
An hour later, they had reached the halfway point. Sam woke up briefly, and after taking his phone off his belt, turned over and went back to sleep. Emily was still sleeping, and Cole had taken over steering the boat while Roger took a nap. Cole didn't mind traveling at night. His dad had explained what to look for and what to steer clear of and told him to just go steady and slow, and he was doing just that.
Cole was yawning when he heard Sam's phone ring. He grabbed it quickly and answered it. He heard Tucker's voice call out Sam's name. "What do you want?" he asked his cousin.
Tucker paused and then began laughing. "So, he didn't kill you? That's good. I thought he would have by now."
"Thanks, I think. Maybe I'm more use to him alive than dead," Cole told his cousin.
"So, where is he?"
"He's not here at the moment. Is there anything I can do for you?" Cole asked.
"You aren't the one I want right now," Tucker told him.
"That's too bad, because I'm the only one you've got."
"Are you sure about that?" Tucker asked slyly.
"Are you talking about your parents and your brothers?" Cole remarked.
"You followed me back home, didn't you?" Tucker laughed. "Did you like the surprise I left you at the boat?"
"That wasn't very nice, you know," Cole shot back.
"Hey, we have to do what we have to do. I didn't want you guys to catch up with me, so I had to try to stop you."
"We will catch up with you. You know that. It's just a matter of time," Cole stated bluntly.
"Maybe, but will you get here in time? Ticktock, ticktock."
"Why are you doing this?" Cole finally had to ask.
"This was something I've been planning a long time, but I had other things to do until now. When this is all over, I'm going to disappear, and to do that I needed enough money to live on. Don't worry, Cousin, your time is coming and you won't even see me until it's too late"
"You won't get the chance," Cole told him. "Tomorrow is your day of reckoning."
Tucker just laughed. "Well, it will be for some of us, but when the sun goes down we'll see who's alive and who isn't."
"You don't scare me, Tucker. Not anymore," Cole told him.
"You were scared earlier today, and I didn't even have my knife out," Tucker reminded him. "You almost wet your pants."
"That was before I realized something about you"
"Oh, and what did you realize?"
"That you're nothing but a coward. You hide what you really are by stealing other people's lives. You hurt the people that love you the most and have turned your back on anything decent because you're just too afraid to try"
Tucker was silent for a long minute. "If that's what you believe, then it isn't any wonder you haven't caught me yet"
"You can fool most of the people you come across, but you can't fool me. I know you too well," Cole reminded him.
"You don't know me at all, if you think I'm a coward," Tucker grumbled. "I'm not afraid of you or anyone else, and I'm not afraid to die either. If either of us is a coward, it's you. You never stood up for me when we were kids. You never once protected me against anyone."
"You mean I wouldn't lie for you, or take a punishment that was yours. Your actions caused the most damage, so why should I protect you from that?"
"All I ever wanted was for someone to show me that they thought I mattered. I wasn't just a pale shadow of you. You helped create what I became" Tucker was angry and clearly didn't care if Cole knew it.
"No, you did that all by yourself," Cole told him quietly.
"What do you mean?"
"You made the choice to kill, not me. You made the choice to steal other people's lives, not me," Cole reminded him. "You're the one who turned your back on the rest of us-no one else did it for you"
"I'm going to enjoy killing you tomorrow. We'll see then who begs for his life," Tucker told him.
Cole quietly closed the phone, cutting the connection. He didn't know if he could take any more of Tucker's wild accusations.
Tucker watched as Cole continued to steer the pontoon toward Hannibal. Cole wasn't paying attention to the river behind him or he would have seen Tucker following in his wake as he passed yet another river island. Cole didn't see the houseboat moored behind the island, the same boat they had been looking for since they left Mississippi. Its black hull blended so well with the night sky that you could barely see it in the shadow of the island.
Tucker reached for the pontoon's ladder and quietly hauled himself out of the water. It only took him seconds to see where everyone was. By pure chance, he had pulled his boat off the river just an hour ago. When he hung up the phone, he realized they were passing right in front of him. Before the boat completely passed his island, Tucker didn't think about what he was going to do-he just dove into the water. It didn't take him too long to catch up with the boat, and a few minutes later he boarded it. When he saw that everyone was sleeping except for Cole, Tucker smiled.
He reached for the knife on his belt. Using the ivory handle that had worked so well as a club earlier, he walked up behind Cole and hit him. Cole groaned and slumped forward. The boat rocked a bit, then settled into a nice steady ride. Tucker grabbed his cousin's hand and sliced it open just enough to make it bleed profusely. He wanted everyone to think Cole was seriously injured. He smeared the blood around the steering wheel and dribbled it along the floor of the boat. Then he shut off the motor and broke the key. He didn't want whoever woke up first to catch up to them too quickly. His cousin had made him angry, and he would make him pay for what he had said, but he wanted to have a little fun with him first.
Tucker grabbed Cole by the arms and dragged him to the back of the boat. It would serve him right if he just dumped his body in the water and let him drown, but Tucker wasn't feeling generous tonight. Cole had said some nasty things to him, and he wanted him to see death coming.
Tucker and Cole made very little noise as they slipped down off the boat into the water. Tucker grabbed his cousin under the chin and swam him back to the island. He was winded and exhausted by the time they got there, and when he pulled Cole out of the water, Tucker slugged him in the face. He knew Cole wouldn't feel it now, but when he woke up it would hurt. For the moment, that would have to be enough. Tomorrow would be the real test. It would all depend on who was still alive when the sun went down.
It wasn't quite daylight when Sam woke up. The boat was still moving, but it wasn't moving correctly. He sat up and looked around. Roger and Emily were still sleeping, but where was Cole? That's when he realized the engine wasn't running and they were drifting.
Sam looked out at the river. They were headed for the bank, and the current was carrying them out of the main channel. Sam jumped up and tried to restart the engine. That's when he noticed the broken key. He swore. He tried the steering wheel, but that didn't work either. Looking over at Roger and Emily, he found them awake and looking back at him. He told Roger, "Someone shut off the engine and broke the key. Is there any other way to restart the engine?"
Roger jumped up and joined him. Squatting down, he had a look at the ignition. There was just enough of the key left to try to turn over the engine. After fiddling around with it for a moment, Roger made the motor roar to life.
Once he made the correction, they were back on course, and he began looking around the small craft. His fingers were sticky, and when he raised them to see what was on them, he and Sam saw the blood. He slowed the boat and, putting it in neutral, let it drift while he looked around more closely. That's when he saw the trail of blood leading to the back of the boat.
Sam found his phone up on the dash of the boat. He had a text message. Punching in his code, he read the message.
Emily had fear and concern in her eyes and Roger was looking around to pinpoint their location. "Where's Cole?" Emily asked.
"Tucker's got him," Sam told her.
"What? How?" Roger blustered. "He was driving the boat last night."
"I didn't hear a thing," Sam told them. "All I have to go on is this message." He handed the phone to Emily and watched as she handed it to Roger. Her eyes filled with tears.
"Do you have any idea where we are?" Sam asked the older man.
Roger gave the phone back to Emily and stood up to have a good look around. He turned back to Sam and nodded. "We're only about fifteen miles south of the farm. We should get there in about forty minutes or so" He ran his fingers through his hair. "How did Tucker get his hands on Cole? He was so far in front of us"
Sam shrugged. "I wish I knew. All we can hope for is that Cole is okay and we meet up with them at the farm" Sam stopped to look at Roger. "
Is there a place nearby that can hide a boat like Tucker's and still give him access to land?"
Roger thought for a moment and then nodded. "Sure, other than the dock, there is a small inlet near the caves. It's out of the way, and you can't see it from the river. You have to know where it is in order to get to it, but the boys used to go fishing there when they were younger."
"Can you get us to the inlet? I have a feeling that's where we'll find the boat Tucker is using," Sam told them.
Roger started up the engine and steered the pontoon back out into the middle of the river. As they got closer to the farm, he steered the boat over to the right side of the river and up into the backwater. Turning the corner, they found the black houseboat. They also saw another one moored in the inlet.
Sam sat forward and surveyed the scene. "Okay, let's go back to the dock. We know where they are now, but they don't know where we are. Let's keep it that way for at least a little while."
Roger reversed the pontoon out of the backwater and onto the main channel of the river. They tethered the pontoon at the dock for the farm. Roger turned to Sam. "What are your plans?"
Sam was busy gathering his things. He looked up at Roger. "I want you to take your wife away from here. If things go wrong, I don't want Tucker to get either of you. Go, find the nearest police department, and have them call this number and talk to Alec Hunter. He's my partner in New Orleans and he'll tell them what they need to know. Don't come back here. Tell the police Tucker will likely kill anyone he sees, and I don't want any more policemen caught unaware in his line of fire"
"There's no way the police will make it down here in time to help you," Emily said.
Sam smiled. "I know. But I don't know what today will bring. I'll have whoever survives give the nearest police station a call"
Emily nodded. "Please take care of yourself, and try to get the others out alive."
"Don't worry, that's the first thing on my list of things to do today"
Sam watched as Emily and Roger made their way back out to the river. He turned to the path leading to the barn and the house beyond. He didn't know where anyone was, so he stayed out of sight as long as he could. The brush he struggled through was dry and scratched at his clothes. He got within fifty feet of the barn before he ran out of cover.