by Dana R. Lynn
“That horse.” She pointed to the mare with a distinctive star on its face. “That horse is owned by the Kings. This is Linda’s buggy.”
The officers digested the information in grim silence. One of them, Lieutenant Tucker, she thought, got out his phone and started taking pictures of the horse and the inside of the buggy.
Chief Kennedy looked more severe than she’d ever seen him. “Are you positive that this is the right horse?”
“One hundred percent.” She pointed at the star on the mare’s face. “That mark is so unique. I have seen it several times.”
The tense silence stretched as the officers searched the area for any sign of struggle or clues.
“Chief!”
Gavin was squatting, flashing his light under the buggy.
“What do you have, Jackson?”
Instead of answering, Gavin shifted his weight. He moved so that the chief would have a better view, she realized. Leaning to the side, she peered under the buggy, straining to see what he was pointing to. When she saw it, her blood ran cold.
On the ground, lying in a patch of mud, was the stalker’s signature red rose.
Dr. Quinton had Linda.
THIRTEEN
It took the team the better part of the night to search the area. Alexa waited in Gavin’s police car for most of it. One of the officers was constantly nearby, standing guard.
Sighing, she planted her elbows on her knees and leaned forward so her face was cupped in her hands. She was so tired. And so worried. Who’d be next? Her eyes flashed to where Gavin was even now pacing outside the vehicle, talking on the radio. If something happened to him, it would devastate her.
Her feelings were so powerful, so deep, that she could hardly breathe at the thought of going back to a life without him. However, he was a cop, so he’d always be in danger. Did she want to deal with that stress in her life?
Yes. It was either that, or not having him in her life at all. Even if she could only be with him a short time, she’d take it. The only problem was, he’d made it clear that he intended to keep to his solitary ways.
Maybe when all this was over, and life returned back to normal, maybe she’d tell him how she felt.
Right. And watch him run in the opposite direction. The man was honorable and steady to the core. He also had a chip on his shoulder and a habit of taking responsibility for things that were not his fault. Things like his uncle’s death.
But wasn’t she guilty of holding on to things, too?
She remembered her anger at her mother. At her father. Even at her brother. Who was that anger hurting besides herself? Her mother couldn’t feel it, her father didn’t care, and Allen...
She frowned. She didn’t actually know how Allen felt. Because she’d shut him out. She’d always thought that when he asked her to come to live with him he didn’t really mean it. But had she given him a chance? Now she wondered how he would react if she told him what was happening. He might not even care. But he might. And you’re not giving him the chance to show you.
Slowly she pulled her phone out of her pocket and tapped in his number. He probably wouldn’t answer. He had to be busy. She could call back.
“Hello? Alex?” he answered.
He’d always called her Alex. She hated it, but now a smile bloomed on her face at the pet name. “Hey, big brother.”
“Sis! It’s great to hear your voice! Melissa told me just this morning that I needed to insist you come for Christmas this year. No excuses.”
She couldn’t speak for a moment around the lump in her throat. He did care. And he wanted her to visit.
“Alex?”
“That would be great, Allen. Tell her I’d love to come. I can’t wait to see my little niece, too.” She paused. Then she took a deep breath. She needed to tell him. “Listen, Allen. There’s something I have to tell you.”
He must have heard the serious tone in her voice. “You can tell me anything you want. Always.”
Ten minutes later, there were tears running down her face. Her brother was outraged on her behalf. He was all set to get on an airplane the next day and come to her rescue. She’d never given him the chance to play her hero before. She’d always assumed that he wouldn’t want to. She also realized that she might have misjudged her sister-in-law. She could hear Melissa in the background telling Allen to ask her to come stay with them until the danger was gone.
“You don’t need to come yet, Allen. The police are on it. I even have my own personal cop keeping an eye on me.” She blushed just talking about it. Good thing he couldn’t see her face now.
“Tell me about your cop.” Her brother’s voice had calmed down. Now she heard the brotherly tease in it.
Her cop. Not quite. But she liked the way it sounded.
“He’s not my cop. His name is Gavin. He keeps an eye on me, that’s all.”
“Sis. You can protest all you want. But I can hear the way your voice changes when you talk about him.”
What was she supposed to say to that?
“Anyway,” she said, changing the subject, “you don’t need to come now. I appreciate your willingness to do so. I really do.”
“I will come anytime you need me, sis. Anytime. All you need to do is call.”
For the first time, she believed him.
After she disconnected the call, she sat for a moment, feeling warm. He did care. After all these years of doubting, she finally knew the truth.
Something hard thumped against the car.
She looked up, startled. Gavin had fallen against the car. What was wrong with him? A second later, she knew. A shot hit the edge of the car. Was he hurt? Scrambling out the other side, she crawled around to him. He was crouched down, his gun out. He was speaking urgently into the radio. He saw her and a fierce frown covered his face.
“Get in the car.”
She didn’t answer. Now that she was beside him, she could tell that he was not injured.
The officers who had heard the shots swarmed the area. They were searching for the sniper in the dark. A car careened down the street. It had to have been pushing eighty.
“Get in!” Gavin ground out again, then he got behind the wheel. She was still buckling her seat belt when the engine roared to life and he hit the sirens. He took off after the fleeing sniper; he started to swerve onto the main road.
“Wait!” she shouted.
“What?” he said, looking around.
“There! Over near the bridge. I thought I saw someone.”
She didn’t dare give voice to the hope that was in her mind.
He narrowed his eyes. “I don’t see anything.”
Still, he turned the wheel and headed toward the bridge. They had to get out and walk. As they got closer, she could hear a ragged sound. Intuitively she reached forward and took Gavin’s hand. She didn’t even try to tell herself it was because it was hard to see in the dark. It would be a lie. She took his hand because he made her feel safe. To her surprise, he didn’t shake her off. Instead, she felt his warm fingers tighten around hers.
The sound became more pronounced as they drew closer It was someone breathing. She knew what they’d find before they rounded the corner. Linda King was huddled on the ground next to the bridge. Gavin flashed the light over her, careful not to shine the beam directly into her face. No obvious injuries were visible.
“Linda? It’s Alexa Grant.”
With a sob, the Amish teenager threw herself forward into Alexa’s arms. Alexa stumbled back. Gavin was at her shoulder in a second to steady her. She was shocked by the girl’s actions. It was totally out of character. She must have been beyond terrified to act this way.
“Linda, we thought that he’d caught you. The man who shot your brother.”
Linda stopped crying and moved back. “He did. I saw him and ran to my buggy. I knew I h
ad to go fast. He was faster, and he hit me.” She touched her cheek with her hand. “I had a shovel in the buggy. I was bringing it to my friend. It was on the ground. He stepped on it, and it came up and smacked him here,” Linda said, pointing to an eye. “He yelled, and I ran. I have been hiding for a long time.”
They drove her to her neighbor’s house to stay. The other officers were chasing after Quinton.
At her friends’ house, Linda stood in the doorway, watching them with shadowed eyes. She was uncertain if she would come to the police station to give a description. All she knew was that he was medium height and had some kind of dark glasses on. He wore a hood, so she couldn’t tell if he was bald or not.
“Alexa, be careful. This man, he is not a gut man. He wants you dead. I heard what he said to my brother before he shot him. He told him that you were his.” She turned her eyes to Gavin. “He will kill you because you are with her. That’s why he shot my brother. He shot him because he saw Alexa and Marvin standing together. I heard him say that he was watching her. All the time.”
She understood what the woman was saying. Any man who talked with her, stood near her, was a target. She already knew that.
“Maybe I should leave,” Alexa whispered to Gavin. “Maybe if I left, he would stop targeting the people here.”
Gavin frowned at her. “How would that help? Lexie, the man has already changed his identity and his appearance once. What would stop him from doing it again? And his behavior has escalated to the point where no one is really safe from him. People with obsessions like his don’t lose their focus. He’ll just keep coming after you. We have to stop him now.”
* * *
Gavin didn’t like the look on Lexie’s face. The glance she threw his way was an odd mixture of fear and agony. He knew what she was thinking. She was thinking that she was putting others in danger. As usual, others were foremost in her thoughts.
That was one of the reasons he admired her.
She was one of a kind.
And he had to let her go.
He’d never faced anything more painful in his life.
His radio beeped. The dispatcher’s voice split the silence. “Structure fire at the LaMar Pond Warehouse on Main Street. Smoke has been spotted at the scene. Unknown entrapment. Arson is suspected.”
“That’s right next to the clinic!” Alexa said, grabbing hold of his arm.
It was the stalker. Quinton set fire to another building. He knew it. Who else would it be?
“Come on, Lexie. It’s time to go. It’s got to be our guy.”
She jogged to the cruiser next to him. He placed a hand on her back briefly before she moved around to her side of the vehicle. He couldn’t explain it, the need to touch her, just to reassure himself of her continued well-being. They made it to the scene of the blaze in good time. The fire department was already on the scene. Thick black smoke poured from a broken window in the back of the building. So far, it looked like the clinic had not been damaged.
Getting out, they joined the fire chief. He was listening to the information coming in. “The fire is contained in the back storage room. There’s no doubt that it was arson, Chief. There was a pile of flammable material, just stacked, and some kind of accelerant was dumped on top. My gut instinct says gas, but we’ll know for sure soon.”
The chief started to respond. Suddenly there was another voice yelling in the background. “We have a body here! Someone was trapped in the fire.”
Gavin winced. That was one of the things that emergency responders feared. Arriving on a scene and finding that they were too late to save a civilian. He felt Lexie move up behind him. Part of him wanted to shield her from this mess. That would be ridiculous. She was a nurse. She had probably seen much worse. Still, he wanted to keep her safe. Where could he have her go? He needed to get more information.
“Lexie, I need to see what I can do to help. And I need to document the scene.”
She glanced around, a slight frown creating ridges on her forehead. When she looked back at him, her eyes were determined. “Can I help?”
“I don’t know. Stay with me.”
The paramedics and the firefighters dealt with the body that had been found in the storage room. It looked like he had been trapped and something had hit him on the head.
Gavin talked with Chief Kennedy. “It looks to me like our perp got to the guy before the fire started. Hit him with something. The fire hadn’t spread very far when it was contained. So I have trouble believing that whatever hit him burned up in the blaze.”
His chief nodded, his hand rubbing the scruff on his chin.
Gavin continued. “This is how I see it. The perp kills him, whoever he was, then sets the fire to cover up the crime.”
“I hear a ‘but’ coming, Sergeant.”
Gavin spun and paced a few feet away and back, rubbing his hands together as he thought. “It doesn’t fit. You know? He’s made no effort to cover up his other attacks. He did them right out in the open. So why cover up this one?”
A man ran toward them. “Chief Kennedy. Sergeant Jackson. I think we might have something.”
He held out a piece of darkened, twisted metal.
“What exactly is that?” the chief asked.
“It was part of a homemade explosive. It appears that he was in the middle of setting the blaze, and this went off prematurely.”
Gavin blinked. “He blew himself up?”
“Yep.”
Wow. He would not have expected that in a million years. The killer had been a step ahead of them the whole time. To get killed in his own trap seemed anticlimactic, somehow.
“Do we have any proof that this is Quinton? Or that he was involved in the arson case in Chicago?”
The chief raised his brows. “You tell me. You’re the one who went there.”
“Nothing seemed to connect him to that crime. We can place him at the hospital one time during Lexie’s time of employment there. We have nothing to place him at the flower shop, so it might be a coincidence...”
His voice dropped off.
“Except that you don’t believe in coincidences.”
“It would be a really weird coincidence,” Lexie’s voice interrupted. “Especially since the man stalking me sent me flowers from there. Not just once, but several times.”
He’d forgotten she was listening. But she was right. “It would be a weird coincidence. Which in my mind, means there’s a link somewhere. We just haven’t found it yet.”
“But you will.” She gazed up at him, utter faith in her eyes. He felt humbled. Catching the chief’s amused glance, he flushed.
A firefighter ran out of the building.
“Everyone get back!” One of the firefighters ran out from the back of the building. “There’s another bomb. It’s gonna blow!”
Gavin didn’t hesitate. He grabbed hold of Lexie and pushed her back behind his car, then he covered her body with his. And not a second too soon. A second explosion rocked the building. He could feel his cruiser rock as the force from the blast hit it. Chunks of burning wood flew everywhere. One landed inches from them.
The firefighters and the police officers who had responded were kept busy for the next few hours. The warehouse was a total loss. Parts of the building were burning and smoldering, other parts looking as if they had melted. It was a good thing that the fire had happened when no one was on duty. He wondered about the man inside the building. Had it truly been the arsonist? Or was it another victim? He’d have to wait to find out what the investigators found. It would have been tragic had any innocent lives been lost in the blaze.
The immediate worry was the clinic. It was separated from the warehouse by less than thirty feet. They needed to keep the blaze from spreading. Quite a feat, Gavin thought, watching the sparks and chunks of burning debris getting caught in the breeze and blowing toward the
clinic. He helped, keeping a water hose on the clinic, dousing it with water to keep the fire from catching.
By the time the fire was completely out and the other buildings declared safe, the sun was rising. Gavin went to his cruiser and found Lexie curled up on the seat, sound asleep. She’d been a trouper, working alongside them, doing whatever needed done.
Reaching over, he gently pulled the seat belt out and buckled her in. He tried to do it without waking her. She stirred anyway. Those blue-gray eyes fluttered open and stared at him.
He was so thankful that she was safe. She was dirty, her hair and clothes smelled like smoke, making his cruiser thick with the odor, too. He didn’t care. She had survived.
He started to move closer to her. Stopped himself. Don’t get too close, Jackson. She’s not for you. He did, however, allow himself the luxury of running a finger down her smudged cheek. The right corner of her lips turned up. She sighed. Sleepy, she was unguarded. His breath stuck in his throat at the emotion in her gaze. It was as if someone had punched him in the stomach. The last thing he’d wanted to do was to cause her pain.
He had to close this case. Their lives, and their hearts, depended on it.
FOURTEEN
The next day was one of the longest Gavin could ever remember. He went to work, doing his best to stay on top of things. In his mind, he kept seeing Lexie as she’d looked last night in his cruiser.
He knew that he had never felt so strongly for anyone. And he had no hope.
He would not go to see her after work, he decided. She was protected. As soon as the body from the fire was identified, they’d know if Quinton was really dead and the threat gone. Then she could go home. He wouldn’t need to be by her side all the time.
Instead of being relieved, he was hollow.
He was clearing off his desk, getting ready to head out, when his phone rang. It was Chuck Burch, the medical examiner. Despair and hope warred inside his chest.
Gavin deliberately forced himself to push his emotions down, deep where they couldn’t interfere with his duty. Then he walked to the chief’s office.