Maybe he just needed to give Sheri a little more time to process his profession of love for her. After all, it wasn’t as if she didn’t have other things to consume her at the moment.
She had to figure out her relationship with a birth mother she’d never known, she had an aunt who had been missing for months and she and her precious dog had been attacked by an unknown man in the woods. When he thought about it, maybe his timing just sucked.
Like Steve, Jimmy had believed there were times when he’d felt love radiating from Sheri to him. There had been times when he felt her smile was made especially for him, when her eyes had glowed not just with a sexual tension but with a hunger for his entire being.
Patience.
That’s what he needed.
Unfortunately, that had never been one of Jimmy’s strong suits.
* * *
Food.
Liz nearly trembled with joy when the doggie door opened and the tray was shoved inside, holding roast beef and red potatoes and green beans. She carried the tray with trembling hands to her chair and although she wanted to gobble the food down as fast as the fork could shovel it in, she fought the impulse, not wanting to make herself sick.
She’d thought she’d been forgotten. She’d believed that she’d never eat again, but now glorious food sat before her on a plain white plate. Along with the food was a cup of hot tea. Glorious, she thought, nearly salivating at the scent of the hot food alone.
Instead of inhaling it, she ate slowly, savoring each and every bite. The roast was tender and juicy, the new potatoes seasoned and buttered to perfection. The green beans had a bit of a bite to them, but she ate everything on the plate, unsure when she would see any food again.
Maybe her captor had been out of town the past couple of days when there had been no food delivered. Maybe he’d been ill. Her blood chilled as she realized if anything happened to the man who held her captive, then she’d definitely die in this bunker slowly...painfully of starvation.
When she finished eating everything on the plate, she got out of the chair to carry the tray to place it back at the little door so that it could be retrieved and hopefully returned again in the morning with breakfast. As she bent down, a wave of dizziness struck her.
She drew several deep breaths and then straightened, wondering if maybe she’d eaten too fast after all. She stumbled back to her chair and half fell into it, the small room beginning to spin in circles inside her head.
Drugged, she thought someplace in the back of her head where her brain was still functioning. Her eyelids were heavier than they’d ever been and even as she worked to keep them open, she couldn’t.
The food had been drugged and she’d eaten every bite and now she couldn’t open her eyes, she couldn’t even lift an arm.
Was she still breathing?
She fell into the darkness that called to her.
She had no idea how long she was out cold, but consciousness came back slowly in small increments. She became aware of the faint scent of lilacs and the uncomfortable position she was in on the chair.
Her mouth was unbelievably dry and her limbs still felt a heaviness that was abnormal. Her brain was wrapped in cotton and she shook her head and sat up straighter in the chair in an effort to orient herself from the fog.
She remembered the food and the unconsciousness that had resulted. Why had her food been drugged? What had been the motive? There had to be a reason why she’d been knocked out cold. What could it be?
She frowned and in the silence she heard the faint wisp of another’s breath. Her heart banged against her ribs as she realized she was no longer alone in the bunker.
Her gaze shot wildly around the room and when it landed on the single bed in the corner, she cried out in horror.
No! Her brain screamed in denial even as she got to her feet and rushed to the side of the bed. No, please don’t make this be, her heart cried as she fell to her knees.
Liz’s sweet Sheri lay on the bed, small and still. Liz wanted to rage at the person who had brought her here, at the fate that had placed Sheri in the sights of the madman who now held them both captive.
What on earth did their captor have in store for them? Why had he taken Sheri? She shouldn’t be here. She should be feeding her animals in her backyard, laughing at Highway’s antics, not in this bunker where death was buried in the wall and the fear of the unknown reigned supreme.
Chapter 16
The men lingered at the tavern after they’d eaten, sharing another pitcher of beer and talking about crimes both past and present.
Jimmy certainly had no reason to rush home. There was nobody...nothing waiting for him there. Neither Steve nor Frank were apparently in any hurry, either, with the family meeting at the Dollhouse set to begin at any minute.
“I just hope we don’t get a call from dispatch to head to the Dollhouse to break up a brawl. I’d hate to have to arrest my own soon-to-be wife for assault,” Steve said half-seriously.
“Roxy isn’t going to assault anyone,” Frank assured him. “Not with both Marlene and Sheri there to stop her. Besides, we all know Roxy has a tough exterior but is as soft as a marshmallow on the inside.”
“We all know Roxy has a lot of baggage where her mother is concerned. Maybe this will be a good thing and if nothing else they can figure out what kind of a role they want Ramona to play in their lives,” Jimmy said.
“If any,” Frank added.
“Ramona might have an easier time getting into their lives now that they’re all missing their aunt Liz,” Jimmy said.
“According to Ramona she didn’t know Liz was missing when she first turned up in town. It was only after she heard some town gossip that she realized what was going on. I checked her out and she was still in Arizona when Liz went missing,” Steve said.
Jimmy checked his watch. It was eight-thirty. The family reunion should have begun. “I just hope they all get what they need from each other tonight,” he said.
Fifteen minutes later his cell phone rang. He dug it out of his pocket and frowned as he saw Roxy’s name on the caller ID.
“It’s Roxy,” he said to the other two men and then he answered. “Roxy, what’s going on?”
“Is Sheri there with you?”
The question caused Jimmy’s heart to plummet to the floor. “No, I thought she was with you at the Dollhouse.”
“She never showed up and it’s not like her to be late. I’ve tried to call her a couple of times, but her phone keeps going to voice mail.” The simmer of worry in Roxy’s voice exploded into full-blown terror inside Jimmy.
“I’ll check at the store, maybe she got hung up,” Jimmy said. “I’ll call you back if I hear from her and you call me if she arrives there.” He disconnected the call, trying to fight against an overwhelming sense of dread.
“What did she want?” Steve asked.
“Sheri never made it to the Dollhouse and she isn’t answering her cell phone,” Jimmy said as he stood, his heart beating far too fast. “She should be there by now. She told me she was going there directly from the store. I’m going to the store to see if she’s still there.”
“We’ll go with you,” both of his partners chimed in.
They paid their bill and then got into their separate cars to head toward the Roadside Stop. The hamburger and fries Jimmy had eaten before now roiled around in his stomach with a faint sense of nausea.
Why wouldn’t she be at the Dollhouse with her sisters? She’d been so certain she could take care of herself. He clenched and unclenched his hands on the steering wheel, telling himself that it was possible she’d had customers who’d come in late and had decided to wait on them rather than hurry them out the door.
He never should have listened to her when she’d told him she’d be fine. He should have insisted that
he keep driving her to and from work, making sure she got home safe and sound every day.
Don’t jump to conclusions, he counseled as he hit the highway that would take him to the store. Maybe there was a perfectly logical explanation for her lateness to her meeting with her family.
Still, he couldn’t help but remember that the last time he’d thought she was just late she had actually been being chased by a crazy man through the woods.
That doesn’t mean she’s in trouble now, he tried to console himself. But in his heart, in his very soul, he knew that nothing within her control would make Sheri late to the meeting with her sisters and her mother.
A glance in his rearview mirror let him know that Steve and Frank were just behind him. Their presence gave him little comfort. He wouldn’t be comforted until he knew Sheri was okay.
As he pulled up to the store he saw the Closed sign in the window. So, she’d shut up shop for the night. It wasn’t until he pulled around to the employee parking area and saw her bright yellow pickup parked there that alarm bells screamed in his head.
He stomped on his brakes, cut his engine and was out of his car in a flash. He raced to the driver’s door of the truck and mentally reeled as he saw both the shotgun and her purse in the passenger seat. Oh, God, the worst had happened. She was gone.
A hand fell on his shoulder, firm and solid and he turned to see Steve, his blue eyes calm and steady. “You can’t lose it now, partner. She needs you to be at the top of your game.”
Jimmy nodded, although he felt as if he couldn’t draw a breath and he feared if he didn’t breathe he’d pass out.
Gone.
She was gone, and it was just like Agnes two years ago, just like Liz over three months ago. She was gone as if the wind had simply blown her far away.
“I’ll get my kit,” Frank said, and walked back to his car where he opened the trunk to retrieve what he’d need for taking fingerprints.
“We need to find out who was with her when she came out here to leave,” Steve said calmly.
His calm tone grated on Jimmy. He wanted to punch something. He needed to throttle the person who had somehow, someway, managed to make Sheri vanish.
He drew several deep breaths, fighting against the anguish, the sense of hopelessness that already cascaded through him, stealing all the warmth from his body. “It would have been either Abe or Michael. They always worked the evening shift.”
Steve stepped away from Jimmy and pulled his cell phone from his pocket. As he made the necessary calls, Frank opened his kit on the ground next to the driver’s door of the truck.
Jimmy watched helplessly as Frank pulled on gloves and then began to process the outside of the door. Frank worked slowly, methodically, as he should and yet Jimmy wanted to scream at him to hurry, that every minute that passed took Sheri farther away from him.
Steve walked back over to Jimmy. “Abe called in sick today and Michael was with her when she closed up the store. He said when he pulled out of the parking lot she was just getting ready to get into her truck. That was just a few minutes after eight.”
“So, she’s already been missing almost an hour,” Jimmy said as he looked at his watch. An hour. It was an eternity in a case like this.
“I’ve got men on their way. We’ll do a general search of the area and see what we can find,” Steve said.
“It’s going to be dark soon and that’s only going to make any search more difficult,” Jimmy said. Once again he felt sick to his stomach, terrified for the woman he loved.
It didn’t matter that she didn’t love him back, nothing mattered now except that she be found safe. He didn’t need to wrap his arms around her if that wasn’t what she wanted, but he needed to know that she was okay for anyone else who loved her to hold her.
Within minutes two patrol cars pulled in. Big Joe Jamison departed from the driver’s seat of one and Chelsea Loren and Wade Peterson got out of the other car.
Steve walked over to greet them and fill them in while Jimmy watched Frank move to the interior of the car. Jimmy could stand around watching no longer and so he began to walk the area around the truck and then moved outward, looking for signs of tire tracks that might indicate what kind of a vehicle had carried Sheri away.
It would have been easier had the rain stuck around, but the heat of the evening sun had dried the asphalt and no tire tracks were visible.
He found nothing in or around the parking area. As his mind spun over past details and conversations, he yanked Steve aside. “I want somebody to head to Abe’s and make sure he’s really sick and doesn’t have Sheri there with him. We also need to check out Edward Cardell. He was in the store and told Sheri how much she reminded him of Liz. Maybe he really is some kind of a creep.”
Steve took notes as Jimmy continued to access the files in his mind, seeking a name, a face who might be responsible for Sheri’s disappearance.
Work it like any other crime, Jimmy told himself. Don’t think about the fact that it’s Sheri who is missing. Just think without any emotion involved. “You might see if you can get somebody to go to Judge Bishop’s house and obtain a search warrant for William King’s place.”
Steve looked at him curiously. “William King?”
“His wife died before Liz disappeared and Jason has been in the store several times talking to Sheri about his father not being himself, not working the fields and disappearing for long periods of time. We need a warrant for every building on his property,” Jimmy said.
What had sounded crazy at the time now took on a new form. Nothing was too crazy to check out now that Sheri was gone.
“I’ll get the ball rolling.” Steve walked away and once again got on his phone.
Night was falling far too quickly, filling the parking area with deep shadows that would only make things more difficult for any searchers. Jimmy didn’t want night. He needed sunshine and daytime so that there were no shadows to hide wherever Sheri had been taken.
But it was impossible to hold back the night, and with the night came despair because Jimmy had no idea how to find Sheri, just like they hadn’t been able to find Agnes Wilson or Liz Marcoli.
* * *
“Sheri? Sheri, honey, wake up.”
The voice came from far away...a familiar voice that instantly soothed her. But the darkness of her mind was soothing as well and she wasn’t sure she was ready to leave it.
“Sheri Lynn, it’s time for you to get up and talk to me.”
There was only one person who ever called her Sheri Lynn and that was Aunt Liz, but she was missing...she was dead. Am I dead? Sheri wondered.
If this was Heaven, it smelled funny, like dank earth and stale air. She fought against the darkness, curious as to what she would see if she opened her eyes. Would Aunt Liz be there with angel wings?
Her eyes fluttered and she felt a soft, warm caress on her face. “That’s it, baby. Open your eyes so I can see those beautiful peepers of yours,” Aunt Liz’s voice said.
Sheri opened her eyes and stared at the woman kneeling at her side. Her heart leaped with happiness as she saw the familiar, beloved face. “Aunt Liz!” She sobbed a gasp of happy relief and sat up.
Liz joined her on the small bed and the two hugged and wept. For Sheri all that was important at that moment in time was that she was back in her aunt’s arms and that Liz was still alive.
After the initial hugging and crying was over, they finally unwound from their embrace and continued to sit side by side as Sheri looked around with a frown.
“Where are we? What is this place?” Besides the cot where they sat there was a chair with a standing reading lamp behind it, empty wooden shelving and a stool and shower stall.
“I don’t know.” Liz worried a hand through unkempt hair. She looked like a wild woman with her hair longer than Sheri had ever
seen it and with no style or order to the salt-and-pepper strands.
She’d lost weight and wore a shapeless pale yellow shift and her eyes burned with an intensity Sheri had never seen before.
“But who brought you here?” Sheri asked, trying to make sense of the half earthen, half concrete small room. “Who is keeping you here?”
“I don’t know,” Liz said. “I woke up here and meals are delivered to me through that little door and I’ve never seen who is on the other side.”
Sheri looked at the small doggie-like door and immediately thought of Highway. A hysterical burst of laughter bubbled to her lips, but she swallowed it down and instead released a gasp. She’d though Highway could keep her safe. She’d believed possessing a shotgun would keep harm away and yet here she sat in some hole under the ground with the aunt she’d believed was dead.
“Did you see who brought me in here?” she asked, a headache tightening her forehead as she tried to make sense of it all.
Liz shook her head. “I was unconscious. I got a meal, and it had been at least a day...maybe two that I hadn’t been fed. I ate everything on the plate and then I almost immediately got dizzy. He’d obviously drugged the food. He brought you in here while I was out. I never saw him.”
“You keep saying ‘him.’ How do you know it’s a man? Has he spoken to you? Has he told you why you’re here?” Sheri struggled, trying to gain as much information as possible in a world gone mad.
“He’s never spoken a word to me, but I know it’s a man. He wears gloves when he shoves the food tray through the door, but he has big hands. It’s definitely a man.”
Liz’s eyes filled with tears once again. “I can’t believe you’re here. As much as I wanted to see you again, I never wanted it like this...I never wanted you here with me.”
“We’ve all been looking for you since the day you disappeared,” Sheri said. “It’s been almost four months now. The police searched everywhere but they didn’t have any clues to follow.”
Liz’s eyes widened in surprise. “Four months? I knew it had been a long time but I had no idea it had been that long. It’s easy to lose track of time in here. What happened, Sheri? How did he get you here?”
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