She turned her head and looked at him. "Oh, Dallas, we have to find Jazzy before it's too late." 'Tell me everything."
"She-she… the woman who killed Jamie is going to kill Jazzy. She shot Jazzy. I could see Jazzy clutching her stomach, her hands covered with blood. And this woman was dragging Jazzy down an alley."
"Is this happening now?" he asked.
Genny shook her head. "I think it's already happened. I think this woman has taken Jazzy somewhere to kill her."
"Do you have any idea where?"
"No. Not yet. But…"
"But what?"
"I'm going to try linking with Jazzy. We haven't done that in years, not since we were kids." Genny grasped the front of Dallas's shirt. "And Jazzy was never… never-" Tears glistened in Genny's eyes, like stars in the black night sky. "She was never very good at it, at linking with me.''
"I'll call Jacob and we'll form a search party."
"How could this happen? Caleb was supposed to be with her. And I didn't feel his presence anywhere near Jazzy. All I felt was Jazzy's pain and fear." Tears trailed down her cheeks. "She felt alone. So alone."
Dallas kissed the top of Genny's head, loving her beyond all reason, wanting desperately to comfort and reassure her. "We'll find Jazzy. I swear we'll find her before…"
He shouldn't be making prothises to Genny that he wasn't a hundred percent sure he could keep. But damn it all, if Jazzy died, it would destroy Genny. And he couldn't-wouldn't-let that happen.
When she regained consciousness, Jazzy realized she must have passed out sometime between when the crazy bitch forced her into a car and when she woke inside this cabin. Jazzy glanced around in the semidark room and realized she was indeed inside a Cherokee Cabin Rentals. And she was lying on the sofa. When she tried to move, pain ripped through her body, radiating from her stomach and outward. Oh, God, now she remembered. She'd been shot. That wild-eyed woman who looked vaguely familiar had shot her. Jazzy tried to feel her wound, and suddenly realized she couldn't move her hands. Damn it, her hands were tied behind her. She hied to lift her legs and couldn't. Her feet were bound together. Not good. Actually bad. Very bad.
Jazzy glanced around the room, searching for the woman. That's when she saw the naked man lying on the floor, spread-eagled, his hands and feet tied to some sort of metal spikes in the floor.
Holy shit!
When she managed to roll over just enough to get a better look, she recognized the man. Cecil Willis. The crazy bitch had not only kidnapped her, but Laura's father, too.
"Please, why are you doing this?" a soft, quivering voice asked.
Who said that? Jazzy wondered. From where she was trapped on the sofa, she couldn't see the entire room, only the expanse of floor where Cecil Willis lay spread out like a sacrifice to some ancient god.
"Oh, Laura, my sweet baby girl," the crazy bitch said. "You must know that everything I've done, everything I will do, is for you. To protect you."
"I-I don't understand," Laura said.
Jazzy closed her eyes and uttered a silent prayer, pleading with God for help. This nutcase had kidnapped Laura, too. But why? / don't understand any of this. Okay, so maybe she wasn't thinking straight. Maybe a combination of the liquor she'd consumed and the pain and loss of blood from the gunshot wound had made her delirious. Maybe she was hallucinating. Maybe Cecil Willis wasn't really manacled to the floor, buck naked and gagged. And maybe Laura wasn't really here.
A shadow passed by the sofa. Jazzy closed her eyes and pretended to still be unconscious.
"I think your father should explain to you who I am and why I care so much about your happiness," the woman said.
Jazzy eased one eye open. When she saw that the woman had her back to her, Jazzy opened her other eye. The woman's hair was blond. Jazzy tried to put the face she'd seen in shadows in the alley behind Jazzy's Joint with blond hair. Think. Try to remember where you've seen her before.
As Jazzy watched, helpless to do anything else, she saw the woman drag an unbound Laura Willis with her toward the pitiful man lying on the floor. When the woman released Laura's hand and dropped to her knees alongside Cecil Willis, Laura stood there shivering and whimpering.
Run, you damn fool, run. Get away now, while you've got the chance, jazzy screamed silently. What the hell was wrong with Laura? Didn't she understand this might be their only chance to survive?
The woman removed the gag from Cecil's mouth, letting the cloth rag nestle around his throat. Smiling cruelly, she caressed his cheek. "Tell her who I am."
With terror in his eyes, he looked up at his daughter. "This is Margaret. My-my first wife."
She stroked his cheek again. That's a good boy. Now tell her why I love her and why I've come for her."
"Laura, darling…" Cecil looked pleadingly at his daughter.
The woman kicked him in the ribs. Hard. He groaned in pain.
"Daddy!"
When Laura started to go to her father, the woman flung a restraining arm out in front of her. 'Tell her, Cecil." She whirled around and caught Jazzy staring at her. "Or had you rather your whore tell our daughter the truth-that she seduced you, that she took you away from me, that she stole my baby!"
"Margaret, please-"
She kicked Cecil again to silence him. Lady, you're fucking nuts," Jazzy said. "I told you before that I've never seduced a married man"-least of all Cecil Willis-"and I've never stolen a baby. Certainly not yours."
"Lying whore!" She propelled herself across the room in a flash and slapped Jazzy soundly. "He was my husband. Mine! And Laura was mine, too. My baby."
"Margaret, for pity's sake," Cecil called. ''This woman didn't take Laura away from you. Look at her. She's only a few years older than Laura. You've confused her with- Cecil gulped. "Please, let Laura and Jazzy go. Do whatever you want to me, but don't hurt Laura."
The woman looked at Jazzy and smiled. A cold shiver shocked Jazzy's body as she suddenly realized who this woman was. She was the small blonde woman who had eaten dinner at Jasmine's often during the past month or so. What was her name? Not Margaret. No, but something similar. Margie. Marj. Margo! Margo Kenley!
"Margo, I'm Jazzy Talbot. Don't you remember me? You've eaten at my restaurant several times. I'm not the person who stole your baby." Jazzy looked to Laura for help. Snap out of it, girl, and do something-anything. And do it now.
"I know who you are. You're the slut that Jamie Upton couldn't leave alone," Margo/Margaret said. "I had to kill him, to punish him for hurting my baby." 'You-you killed Jamie?" Laura's blue eyes widened in shock, as if she'd only now realized that this woman was a deadly viper, a murderess who enjoyed torturing her victims.
"I did it for you, Laura," Margo said. "He betrayed you, just as your father betrayed me. Men are weak creatures, really. They put their filthy hands all over you and ma�
�ke you feel like nothing. They fuck you and hurt you and… but I made them pay. My father. He raped me the first time when I was eleven. But I cut off his pecker and rammed it down his throat. And then there was my first boyfriend, who cheated on me with a perky little cheerleader. I killed him, too. Killed them both when I found them together."
"Daddy… why does she… keep saying… I'm her baby?" Laura gasped the words between frightened, confused sobs.
"You are my baby." Margo turned and reached for Laura, who shrank away from her. "Don't be afraid. I'd never hurt you. I love you. I always loved you."
"Daddy!"
"Let her go. Please." Cecil struggled fruitlessly against his restraints.
Margo looked at Laura, who stood frozen to the spot. Then she patted Laura's cheek. "See how he begs me to let his whore go free? He doesn't love me. He never did. And he doesn't love you. He only gave you to that slut of his because he wanted to punish me."
"Daddy, please tell me the truth-is she my mother?" Laura dropped to her knees beside her father.
''Yes. Your biological mother." Sweat coated Cecil's pale face and body. "But you're nothing like her, Laura. I swear. You're gende and kind and loving."
As if in a trance, Laura rose to her feet and stared at Margo. "If you love me the way you say you do, you won't hurt my daddy."
Laura glanced at Jazzy, who knew she was on the verge of passing out again. God only knew how much blood she'd lost. Jazzy figured that if she didn't get to the hospital soon, she'd die long before this crazy bitch sliced her to ribbons. And she was pretty sure that's what this Margo broad had in mind. Doing some slicing and chopping on Cecil Willis and her, the same as she'd done on Jamie and Stan Watson. Please, let Daddy and Jazzy go. And if you want me to. I'll stay with you."
"No, Laura, no!" Cecil cried.
Amazing, Jazzy thought. What had happened to that pitiful, helpless little girl who'd kept whimpering and calling for her daddy? It was as if Laura Willis had turned into a mature, capable woman in the blink of an eye.
Wooziness suddenly overcame Jazzy. Her head spun around and around. The pain wasn't so bad anymore. Sort of a dull ache now. That's a bad sign, isn 't it?
And that was the last coherent thought Jazzy had before she passed out again.
Jacob and Dallas had taken every precaution to make sure the search party stayed under their control, and mat meant bringing along Jim Upton and Andrea Willis. Mrs. Willis had threatened to call everyone from the local TV station to the governor. Jacob had told Big Jim that it was his job to keep Mrs. Willis calm, which he'd been doing-up to this point But the real problem wasn't Andrea Willis, it was the wild card in the deck, a man Jacob figured nobody could control. Caleb McCord had been wim Jim when Mrs. Willis had called him to tell him about Cecil and Laura's disappearance. And when Jacob had confided in Jim that Jazzy, too, was Missing, he'd shared the news with his newfound grandson.
Living closer to the Uptons, Dallas had gone there, with Genny in tow, to speak to Mrs. Willis and search the house and grounds for clues. He'd found nothing of any significance, other than Laura's bedroom slipper and a broken teacup. Except one other peculiar item- a remote control to the Uptons' massive front gates. Big Jim had identified it as Jamie's.
"Each of us has a different color remote, "Jim had explained to Dallas, who had later told Jacob when they'd been trying to put all the pieces of tins Missing persons' puzzle together. "Reba's is white. Mine is dark green. Dora's is purple? Laura's is red. Jamie's was blue."
It didn't take a rocket scientist to put two and two together and come up with the inevitable four. The woman who had killed Jamie Upton had somehow managed to kidnap Cecil and Laura. And probably Jazzy, too, if Genny's sixth sense was correct. And it was, a good ninety-eight percent of the time.
While Dallas had taken charge of the investigation at the Upton mansion, Jacob had gone in search of clues in and around Jazzy's Joint-the last place anyone had seen Jazzy. He'd found Lacy in tears, and while he'd been questioning her, Sally had stormed in, along with Ludie.
"I'm heading home to get Peter and Paul," Sally had told him. "I'm gonna find that gal, and when I do, whoever's got her had better run like hell."
Jacob had managed to rein Sally in by explaining the entire situation to her and prothising her that she and, if necessary, her bloodhounds, would play a significant part in searching for Jazzy and Laura and Cecil.
"I don't give a shit about that Willis fellow and his daughter," Sally had said.
He'd sent her off to pick up her dogs and told her to meet him at the Uptons. In the meantime, he and his deputies had scoured the alley behind Jazzy's Joint. What they'd found had chilled him to the bone. Blood. Probably Jazzy's blood. That meant she had been shot, just as Genny had seen in her vision.
"Look here, Sheriff," Moody Ryan had called after he'd picked something up off the ground. After hold-lng it up in his gloved hand so that the glow from the nearby streethght illuminated the object, the deputy had bagged the evidence. "It's a set of keys. Got blood on them."
"Let me take a look. "Jacob had reached for the plastic bag and studied the red-stained keys. Turning the bag this way and that, he'd noticed something written on the oval key ring. "Cherokee Cabin Rentals," he'd said aloud.
Was it just a coincidence that what was probably Jazzy's set of master keys to the cabin rentals had been found in the alleyway? With blood on the keys? He didn't think so. It was as if Jazzy had deliberately left the keys behind, as a clue. What had she been trying to tell him? Jamie Upton had been killed in a cabin, albeit a deserted cabin. But wasn't it possible, maybe even probable, uiat the woman who had kidnaped Jazzy-as well as Laura and Cecil-had taken her to a cabin? One of the Cherokee Cabin Rentals.
Scrunched together in Jacob's Dodge Ram-he, Genny, and Dallas in the front seat and Caleb and Sally in the backseat-they drove up the long, lonely stretch of highway, toward the site where Reve Sorrell'sjag and Stan Watson's truck had been burned. He and Dallas had compared notes and discovered they both had a hunch the woman they were tracking might be in one of uie nearby cabins. And if she was, that meant her three captives were probably with her.
"Wait!" Genny cried.
Jacob slammed on the brakes. Everyone took a collective deep breath and waited for Genny to continue. She'd been trying for the past hour to mentally connect with Jazzy, but without success.
"Did you do it?" Caleb lurched forward, his hand gripping Genny's shoulder. "Did you make contact with Jazzy? Do you know where she is?"
Dallas knocked Caleb's hand aside and growled at him.
"Nearby," Genny said. "She's drifting in and out of consciousness. We must hurry. If we don't get to her.. if we don't help her soon, she'll die!"
* * *
Chapter 30
Caleb listened while Jacob and Dallas issued orders to the search party, comprised of their comb
ined personnel. Pairing up, the officers and deputies were to check each cabin in the vicinity and radio back after each check. Since the number of searchers was limited, they'd be able to check only half the cabins at a time, even with Jacob and Dallas joining the hunt.
Big Jim and Andrea Willis stood nearby, Mrs. Willis bravely holding it together, with Jim at her side for support. Jacob rattled off the names of the present occupants in each cabin, one cabin empty. But he instructed his men to include the unoccupied cabin, also. When Jacob said the name Margo Kenley-that her cabin would be one of the cabins checked on the second round of inspections-Mrs. Willis gasped, but no one other than Caleb and Jim heard her.
Caleb eased closer to his grandfather and asked, "Did Mrs. Willis recognize the name Margo Kenley?"
The Last To Die Page 39