Safety In Numbers

by Carla Cassidy

  One photo in particular stunned Meredith. In it were three people, her mother, her father and a much younger Jim Ramsey. It had obviously been taken on a movie set. So, Jim had known her mother in Hollywood. She digested this information with a sinking horror.

  It seemed obvious now that he must have followed her from California to Cotter Creek. He’d bided his time, wanting her, obsessing about her, then one night on a deserted stretch of road he’d killed her.

  “Ah, I see you’re awake.”

  She whirled around to see him standing on the other side of the steel bars. Jim Ramsey, the man who had sworn to uphold the laws of the county, the man who had murdered her mother. She said nothing.

  “I’m sorry I had to be so rough with you, but things are going to be fine now.” He smiled and in the light of his eyes she saw his madness. “I’m going to have to leave for a little while, but it would be nice if while I’m gone you freshened up a bit and changed into that blue dress.” He pointed toward the closet area. “Remember you wore that in Paris Nights. That was my favorite of your movies. You were stunning in that dress.”

  The lines of reality had blurred for Jim Ramsey. As he stared at her, she knew he was seeing another woman in another time. “I’m not Elizabeth, I’m Meredith,” she exclaimed. “Let me out of here and we’ll forget all about this.” It was a lie, but she needed to jar him back to reality. “Sheriff Ramsey, you need to let me go now. Elizabeth is dead and this isn’t going to bring her back.”

  He slammed his hands against the bars, his face contorted with a sudden rage. “Shut up. You need to shut up. I’ve waited so long for this. You’re mine. You were always supposed to be mine. I’ll be back later and I want you in that blue dress.”

  He turned and disappeared from the doorway. A chill of horror washed over her. She was the prisoner of a man obsessed with her mother, the man she knew had killed her mother. And nobody knew where she was.

  By the time five o’clock arrived, Chase knew something was terribly wrong. He first went to the sheriff’s office where he was told that Ramsey was out in the field, then he went to Wild West Protective Services and told Dalton to rally the family.

  Within twenty minutes Tanner, Zack, Clay and Red had joined Dalton and Chase in the office. The men wore grim expressions as Chase explained what had been going on and his concerns for Meredith’s safety.

  They agreed to meet back at the office in twenty minutes, then split up to check each and every store in the two-block area for signs of her.

  As Chase headed for the north end of town, he tried to stop the raw emotion that threatened to consume him. He recognized it as fear, something he hadn’t felt for a very long time.

  He hadn’t felt this kind of fear since he’d been a child and had sat in school knowing he had to go home to his father. He hadn’t felt this kind of terror since the night his mother had died and he’d known that any goodness that had existed in his world had died with her. But this time his fear wasn’t for himself, but rather for the woman he loved.

  Even though he’d had every intention of walking away from Meredith, he wanted her alive and well when he left her. He hadn’t realized how intricately his heart had wound with hers until this moment, when he sensed danger closing in around them as dark as the night falling all too quickly.

  Where are you, Meredith? The evening shadows were getting darker, thicker and he had the feeling that if they didn’t find her before night fell completely, they might never find her.

  He raced from store to store, his heartbeat gaining speed with each step. How did a woman simply disappear? “It’s time”. The words echoed in his head like the notes of a dreadful song. “It’s time.” What in the hell did they mean?

  They had all gathered back at the Wild West Protective Services office when Sheriff Ramsey walked in. As quickly as possible they told him what was going on. By that time Smokey, Kathy and Savannah had joined the search party.

  “I’ve tried to call her cell phone a dozen times in the last hour, but she’s not answering,” Chase said, the sense of panic a living, breathing entity inside him.

  “Is it possible she left town with somebody?” Sheriff Ramsey asked. “Maybe she met a man and they drove somewhere for dinner?”

  “Not possible,” Chase replied flatly. “She’s in trouble and it has something to do with those notes she got.”

  “Maybe we should search one more time,” Ramsey said. “It’s possible you just missed her in one of the stores.”

  They agreed to spread out once again, this time knocking on doors to the houses along Main Street to see if anyone had any information about Meredith’s whereabouts.

  It was only as Chase passed the barbershop and noticed once again that Sam Rhenquist wasn’t in his usual place that his absence suddenly took on an ominous aura.

  The man never missed a day of bench sitting, but he’d been absent from the bench the whole time Chase had been in town. He spied Dalton across the street and hurried toward him.

  “You know where Rhenquist lives?” he asked.

  “Sure.” Dalton pointed to the barbershop. “He lives in the apartment on the second floor. Why?”

  Chase didn’t reply, but instead hurried across the street toward the barbershop. His gut instinct told him that Sam Rhenquist was no more a kidnapper or murderer than Chase was a Buddhist monk. He also knew he couldn’t ignore an anomaly and Sam Rhenquist not seated in his usual spot was definitely an anomaly.

  On the side of the building that housed the barbershop was a set of stairs that led up to the second floor. Chase took the steps two at a time, his side aching painfully and reminding him that he still wasn’t up to par.

  Still he didn’t allow the pain to slow him. When he reached the door he pounded on it with his fist. He was vaguely aware of Dalton and Clay at the bottom of the stairs, watching with fierce intensity.

  When there was no immediate reply, he pounded again, this time hearing Sam’s voice. “All right, all right. I’m coming. Don’t break down the damn door.”

  The minute he opened the door Chase realized why he hadn’t been sitting on his bench. Sam looked sick as a dog. He was clad in a ratty bathrobe and looked weak as a kitten.

  “Chase,” he said in surprise. “Don’t come any closer, boy. I’ve got a bug or something. I’ve been puking my guts up for the last couple of hours.”

  Chase could smell the faint scent of vomit and knew the old man was telling him the truth. “Sam, we can’t find Meredith West. Have you seen her today?”

  Sam frowned and clutched his robe more tightly around his thin body. “I saw her earlier. She and Savannah ate at the café, then afterward Meredith went into the sheriff’s office.”

  Chase frowned. Ramsey hadn’t said anything about seeing Meredith earlier. “Did you see her leave there?”

  Sam shook his head. “It was about forty-five minutes after she went inside that I started feeling poorly and decided to come up here. Before I left the bench I didn’t see her come out of the office.”

  What would Meredith had done in the sheriff’s office for forty-five minutes? Nothing that he could think of. “Thanks, Sam.”

  Sheriff Ramsey? Was it possible he knew something about her disappearance? Was it possible he was responsible? A new burst of adrenaline accompanied Chase down the stairs. “Where’s Ramsey?” he asked Dalton and Clay.

  “I’m not sure,” Dalton said. “I guess he’s searching like everyone else. Why?”

  “We need to find him,” Chase said and strode off in the direction of the sheriff’s office. Ramsey, who was first on the scene when Elizabeth West had been murdered. Ramsey, who would have helped conduct the investigation that had yielded nothing useful. Chase’s head reeled with horrible suppositions.

  “Chase, what’s going on?” Dalton and Clay hurried to catch up with him.

  Chase stopped and turned to gaze at the two men. “I think the good sheriff knows where your sister is. I also think he just might be the man who mur
dered your mother.”

  Chapter 15

  “There has to be a way out,” Meredith said with frustration. She’d spent every minute since Ramsey had left trying desperately to rip the boards off the window, but they were immovable. She now stood in the center of the room and looked around.

  She had no idea when Ramsey might return, no idea what might happen when he did. One thing was certain, she sure as hell wasn’t going to play into his fantasy by putting on one of her mother’s old costumes.

  There was no point in trying to get through the door. Ramsey must have plundered the city funds to buy the steel door that belonged in a prison or a jail.

  She sank down on the edge of the bed and closed her eyes, trying to figure out how she was going to get out of this mess.

  She couldn’t count on anyone riding to her rescue. All the time that she and Clay had discussed the murder of her mother and the notes, the sheriff would have been the last person they would have suspected.

  She had the horrifying feeling that she was on her own, that if she were going to survive this it would be by being smarter and faster than the portly, crazy Jim Ramsey.

  Maybe it would be smarter to play into his fantasy. Although she had no doubt in her mind that he had strangled her mother, it was also obvious that he wanted Elizabeth, needed Elizabeth. And maybe if Meredith pretended to be Elizabeth she could convince him to let her out of this cell.

  She walked over to the closet where the glittery blue dress hung. Paris Nights had been the movie that had put Elizabeth’s name on the lips of the movers and shakers of Hollywood. It had been the last movie she’d made before leaving it all behind to marry Red and move to Cotter Creek.

  “Mom,” she whispered as she stroked her hand down the sequin-laden fabric.

  She’d never know her mother’s soft touch, never have the special heart-to-heart talks that mothers and daughters shared. She’d believed that the lack of her mother in her life had somehow made her less of a woman, but Chase had taught her differently.

  Closing her eyes, she remembered the desire that had lit his eyes when he looked at her. He’d told her she was a strong and sexy woman…a real woman. And she believed him. Todd had been an ass, and she had been a fool to believe what he’d told her. She’d seen the truth in Chase’s eyes and she embraced it into her heart, into her soul.

  She pulled the dress off the hanger and laid it on the bed, then quickly pulled off her flannel shirt and jeans and pulled the dress on.

  It fit as if made for her, and for a moment she felt as if her mother’s arms enfolded her. The fear that had been with her since the moment she’d first regained consciousness in the trunk of the car eased.

  She walked over to the wall and studied one of the photos. It was a head shot of Elizabeth. She studied each and every detail.

  Her mother wore her hair parted on the left side. Meredith had always worn her hair parted down the middle. In the bathroom she found a plastic brush and comb and despite lacking a mirror, she carefully parted her hair on the left and brushed it around her shoulders.

  She had a feeling if she did have a mirror she’d be stunned by her likeness to the woman who had given her birth. She knew she was playing an extremely dangerous game, but she was out of any other options.

  Trembling with dread, the fear once again rising up inside her, she sat on the edge of the bed to wait for Ramsey to return.

  “We can’t find him anywhere,” Zack announced when they were all once again gathered in the Wild West Protective Services office. “His patrol car is gone, too.”

  “Why would Sheriff Ramsey have anything to do with Meredith’s disappearance?” Tanner asked.

  “I just remembered something,” Clay said. “When I was on assignment in California, Gracie’s agent gave me a picture that showed Mom and Dad and Jim Ramsey.”

  “That’s right,” Red said. “Jim was a friend of ours back in Hollywood. Like me, he worked as a stunt man on lots of the movies. We all worked on several movies together.” Red’s face paled as his gaze met Chase’s. “You think Ramsey wrote those notes to Elizabeth? You think he’s the man who killed her?”

  “Circumstantial evidence points that way,” Chase replied. The knot in his stomach twisted so tight he had trouble catching his breath. “Anyone know where Ramsey lives?”

  “He’s got a little place on the west side of town. Follow me.” There was fire in Smokey’s eyes as he headed toward his truck. The rest of them all scrambled toward their own vehicles.

  Chase and Red got into Red’s car, Chase behind the steering wheel. “I helped that man get settled here in town,” Red said, his vast torment evident in his voice. “He called me from California and told me he wanted to get out of the business, and I encouraged him to come here to Cotter Creek and settle in.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up. If Ramsey wanted to be near Elizabeth you couldn’t have stopped him from coming here,” Chase replied.

  “She would have pulled her car to the side of the road for the sheriff. Elizabeth would have felt safe stopping for him.” Red released a deep sigh. “If he’s hurt Meredith, I’ll kill him,” he said fervently. “And if I find out he is the man responsible for Elizabeth’s death I’ll kill him again.”

  Chase didn’t reply, but when he thought of Meredith hurt or worse, the same killing rage filled him that he knew Red was feeling.

  His hopes rose when they pulled in front of a small ranch house and the patrol car was parked out front. Lights were visible beneath the closed shades.

  Everyone got out of their vehicles with the silence of thieves. “Clay, Tanner and Red, you all go around the back of the house. Zack and Smokey and I will check out the front. Kathy, call Agents Tompkins and Wallace and tell them to stand by, we might need their help.” Chase kept his voice low. He didn’t want Ramsey to have any warning. He pulled his gun and released the safety. “Nobody do anything until I give the word.”

  There was no way of knowing if Meredith was dead or alive, but he didn’t want to storm the place and force Ramsey to do anything drastic.

  He crept to the front window, cursing the fact that the shades were pulled tight, making it impossible to see inside. There was also no way of knowing in what room Meredith might be. He’d wanted Tompkins and Wallace here in case there was a hostage situation. Ramsey wouldn’t trust his own safety to any of the West family or him, but he might trust it to FBI agents who had no ties to the town or the family.

  He stepped up on the porch, careful to not make a sound, then pressed his ear against the door. Just let me hear her voice, he prayed. Just let me hear her voice so I know she’s all right. But there was no sound emanating from inside the house.

  The man had been sworn to serve and protect, but if what they believed were true, that oath had been twisted into something ugly, something that had allowed him to kill one woman and kidnap another.

  Chase couldn’t pretend to understand the forces that drove a man to commit such acts. He couldn’t get into the head of a man who could kill a woman he professed to love.

  Meredith. His heart screamed her name as his hand reached for the doorknob. It twisted beneath his grasp. His heart pounded like it had never done before, a racing beat that beaded sweat on his brow.

  He drew a deep breath and motioned with his head for the others to move closer, then with a yell he opened the door and burst inside.

  The sound of a back door splintering in its frame accompanied him inside. With his gun leveled before him he cleared the living room. Smokey headed for the kitchen and Zack followed Chase down the hallway.

  “Meredith!” Chase shouted her name as he cleared the first bedroom in the hallway.

  “Kitchen clear,” Clay called.

  Chase ran to the next room, aware of a sticky warmth on his side. He’d reopened his wound, but he couldn’t think about that now. All he could think about was Meredith and the fact that she was nowhere in the house.

  “You look lovely.”

  Mer
edith shot off the bed at the sound of Jim’s voice. He stood just outside the doorway, his gaze warm and loving. She wanted to throw up. Her skin crawled as if his sick gaze physically touched her.

  “You told me to put on the blue dress,” she said, trying to keep her revulsion from her voice. “I want to please you if I can.”

  He closed his eyes, as if finding her words too exquisite to believe. “I thought I’d lost you,” he said, his voice soft and barely audible. He opened his eyes and stared at her with hunger. “I thought I’d lost you that night on the road. You remember, don’t you?” There was a fervent light in his eyes.

  “The night when I was coming home from the grocery store. The night you stopped me along the side of the road,” she said.

  He nodded. “I’d sent you those notes. I thought you understood. I fell in love with you the first day that I met you. We were meant to be together, but then Red stepped in and you got confused. I tried to forget you. I tried to let it be, but you haunted me. That’s why I moved out here. You’re why I took this job.”

  “But it didn’t work,” she said softly. “I didn’t understand what you wanted, what you needed.” She had no idea if she was playing this right or not, but she wanted to keep him talking on the off chance that somebody might come to help.

  “I didn’t blame you. I knew Red had seduced you. He’d blinded you to my love, to how happy I could make you. I was a patient man. I waited while you had all your babies. I was patient, but I knew eventually I’d get a chance to make you see that you belonged to me.”

  “And that chance came that night along the side of the road.” She wanted to weep as she thought of her mother pulling over to meet her killer.

  He nodded. “I put my lights on and you pulled right over. You looked so pretty that night.” He gazed just past her, as if reliving that fateful moment in his mind. “You were wearing a skirt and a green sweater that perfectly matched your eyes. You got out of the car and asked if you’d done something wrong.”