Chance Of Rain (21 page)

Very quietly I rolled myself onto my stomach. I put my knees up under me and pushed myself up. My eyes were fixed on Erica the entire time. She never moved. I took a step toward her and stopped, listened, and waited. When she didn’t respond, I took another step. Then another. She moved! I froze. Then she opened her eyes and looked right at me.

“What the hell!” she yelled.

“I’m just going to the restroom,” I said quickly.

She didn’t buy it and pulled up her pant leg. My pulse quickened. My hands were shaking, and I dropped the tube of pepper spray. I heard it clank and roll. I looked for it, but it was too dark in there. Erica almost had her gun out of its
holster. I didn’t think; I lunged for her like a football player and tackled her flat to the floor.

With both hands I grabbed her hair and pulled as hard as I could while she screamed. We toppled over, and I was on my back. Something was under me—my pepper spray!

Just as I clutched it, I saw a flash of light and heard an explosion. I was stunned for a moment; then I pumped the pepper spray into her eyes repeatedly. She dropped the gun and clawed at her eyes. I continued to squirt it. I stopped when I heard a vehicle outside.
Anthony?
I grabbed Erica’s gun and held it tightly as I ran out the door. Without looking I headed straight for the woods. I ran until I found a thicket of yaupons where I could hide myself. I was out of breath. I was thirsty. I was tired. And…I was
bleeding
!

XL

Business as Usual

J
.T. stood in front of Nina’s desk. He was a burly man, with a barrel for a chest and hands like leather.

She hung up the phone. “OK, J.T. That was Cecil. The first round of supplies is being delivered as we speak, so you can go ahead and get your crew out there pronto and get started.”

Nina wasn’t in the mood for small talk this morning. She glanced at her cell to see if Bri had texted her, and then she clicked away on her keyboard. When J.T. didn’t leave, she looked up again. He was still watching her.

“You really are what makes things run around here, aren’t ya?”

She straightened her posture. “I think I do all right, yes. Why?” She raised an eyebrow. “You want to give me another raise?”

He smiled devilishly. “Sorta. Maybe a new title is more like it.”

“A new title?” Nina gave him a confused look. “What are you talking about?”

He struggled for words as he sat down in the chair across from her desk. “I heard about the Devoe girl. I know she’s Brianne’s best friend. I really appreciate your being here, but if you need to go home with everything that’s going on, I underst—”

Nina put her hand up to stop him. “I’m touched by your concern, J.T.” She paused for a moment to blink away the tears that threatened to form. “Unfortunately there’s nothing we can do right now. Bri’s actually at school hoping she’ll find out something from her classmates.”

“I can’t imagine how hard things must be for you both right now.” J.T.’s thick fingers fumbled with the ball cap in his hands. “You know how it is anytime something terrible happens—it gets you thinking about how short life is and how little time we have.”

Nina studied his face, not knowing where this was going.

“I know I’m not doing this right, but I don’t want to waste any more time.” He got up and knelt next to Nina.

“J.T.?”

“Nina, I want to be there for you and Bri. Would you do me the honor of being my partner in business and in life? Will you marry me?”

XLI

Room 471

T
rent and Kate grabbed a couple of small Styrofoam cups of coffee and headed to the elevator. How many times had they done this routine? How many more times would they?

When the bell dinged and the doors slid open, they stepped out and made the long walk to room 471.

Trent hated the smell of hospitals. No matter how many times he came here, he couldn’t get used to it. He was pulled out of his thoughts by the surprised look on Kate’s face when they entered the room.

“What is it?” he asked.

She placed her coffee on the table next to the bed and walked quickly to Travis. “I saw him move his fingers when we walked in, Trent!” She stroked her husband’s hair. “Travis. Travis, I’m here. It’s me, honey. It’s Kate. I’m here.” A tear rolled down her cheek. She continued, “Trent is here too, baby.” She looked at Trent, her face heavy with emotion. She must have seen doubt in his eyes. “I did, Trent. I saw his fingers move.”

“I know, Kate. I believe you.” He stepped over and patted her on the back. They each pulled up a chair and sat with Travis like they had done a hundred times before.

Trent was relieved when he got a call from Chase telling him to come to the Devoes’. They had received a few calls on the tip line and were going to check
them out. Chase didn’t feel very confident they were going to get anywhere with them, but it beat sitting around doing nothing.

Trent had to keep busy or his feelings of guilt would consume him. Ashley was his responsibility, and she had been abducted while under his watch. If Mack hadn’t let them go early that night, he would have been there to walk her to her car. Why hadn’t he headed to the theater earlier because of the bad weather?

Chase had warned him not to get emotionally involved. “It’ll be risky, son, should something go wrong. For goodness sake, Ashley’s not even eighteen—and
you’re a cop
!” He was barely twenty-one, though, and she had just turned eighteen today.

He didn’t care about any of that now. Not anymore. All he cared about was finding Ashley. So much for not getting emotionally involved; he was in love.

XLII

The Hunt

A
nthony drove the speed limit and never saw a cop. He found a very busy grocery store outside of town and pulled into the lot. He put on a baseball cap and walked to a nearby parking garage.

Everyone at this building most likely had returned from lunch and wouldn’t be looking for their car for another five to six hours when it would be time to go home. That would give him a pretty good head start.

He found an unlocked Corolla then slipped inside and worked frantically under the steering column. Within a minute he was driving out of the parking structure.

He went through the drive-through at another bank and withdrew another five hundred dollars and headed back to Erica.

Anthony was surprised when he approached the fairgrounds and saw a construction crew at work. There were numerous trucks and large machinery. Men were crawling all over the place like ants. Because of the chaos, Anthony was able to slip behind the hall without being noticed. He got out quickly and covered the car with the tarp.

Panic ran through him when he saw that the door to the hall was ajar. Then he saw a few drops of what looked like dried blood on the ground. He drew his pistol and slowly made his way inside. He flinched when he closed the door and saw Erica was standing behind it. Her eyes were red and almost completely swollen shut.

“Where is she?” Anthony hissed.

“She attacked me!”

“I can see that! Where is she?”

“I don’t know. My gun went off. I think she was shot. She took off running. I can’t see, so I can’t tell you which way! She couldn’t have gone far.”

Sweat beaded up on Anthony’s forehead. He raked his fingers through his hair. Then he pulled out his phone and dialed Mark.

XLIII

Worth a Shot

T
rent and Cole pulled up at the Devoes’ at the same time. Bri waved at Trent as she got out of Cole’s car.

“Anything new?” she asked.

Trent shook his head then shook Cole’s hand. The three went inside together.

Mark gave them the rundown. “Well, he withdrew money from two different ATMs.” He pointed to a map on the coffee table. “Here and here. They’re both drive-throughs. One withdrawal occurred less than an hour ago, which means they’re still close.”

Ring!
Everyone jumped at the sound of the phone.

Mark picked up. “Mark here.”

“Put fifty thousand in my account by Friday or she’s dead.”
Click!

“Hello? Hello? Hello?” Mark’s face drained of all color.

“What is it, Mark?” screamed Beth. “Was it him? What did he say?”

His mouth was dry. “It was him.” His voice cracked. “The connection was terrible. It was hard to hear. There was a lot of noise in the background. He said he wants fifty thousand dollars by Monday or—”

He couldn’t finish the sentence. Everyone knew what he wasn’t willing to say. Beth gasped, and he held her.

“What do you mean it was noisy, Mark?” asked Trent.

Mark looked up at him and tried to recall the conversation. “Uh, I’m not sure. It was just loud.”

Bri stepped out of the room to answer a call from her mom.

A moment later she came back in the room and spoke to Mark.

“That was my mom checking in. She said J.T. was going to call the police. His crew told him that they saw some vagrants in the warehouse at the fairgrounds where they’re working today. You don’t suppose…”

Mark and Trent glanced at each other. “It’s worth a shot,” said Mark. As they headed for the door he called over his shoulder, “Call for backup, Chase, and meet us there!”

XLIV

Cat and Mouse

A
nthony scouted the building, quickly looking for traces of blood, hoping that by some miracle Ashley was hiding in there, waiting for them to leave. No such luck.

He didn’t think she went to the street, because he would have seen her when he pulled up. That just left the woods adjacent to the fairgrounds.

Erica didn’t know how badly Ashley was wounded. If it was severe, she wouldn’t have made it too far, and Anthony could take her with him. He knew Erica was useless right now; he uncovered the car and had her wait inside it.

He heard the leaves crunching beneath his feet, but not one of them had a single drop of blood on them. He scanned the trees too. Maybe Ashley had leaned against them for support and left a trace. He saw nothing. He heard sirens in the distance, and they sounded like they were getting closer. He didn’t have any more time. He had to go.

He headed back toward the warehouse but stopped when he saw the first of several squad cars arrive. He turned around and ran.

“There!” yelled Trent. Almost a dozen men took off after him.

Anthony almost lost his balance on the rocks beneath his feet. He stopped when something on a larger rock caught his eye.
Blood!

He spun around. There was another smear a few feet away. Then he noticed the thicket of yaupons. He peered in and saw Ashley lying curled up in a ball. She was hunched over and clutching her stomach.

She wasn’t dead, but she looked like she might be close to it. Anthony grabbed hold of her. She moaned and continued to hold her stomach. It looked like her arm was bleeding too.

“Stand up!” he demanded. She did, but she was still hunched over, clutching her midsection.

A moment later they were facing a swarm of officers. Mark threw up his arms. “OK, now, Anthony. Take it easy. Put the gun down. Don’t do something you’ll regret.”

Anthony aimed his gun at Ashley. She fell to her knees, facing him, and he held her up by her hair. “Tell them to put their weapons down!” he bellowed.

Mark turned around and motioned for the officers to lower their weapons. He was able to do this with some confidence when he spied his sniper in the distance positioning himself. He was so grateful that Chase had informed him just before they arrived that he’d already had an ambulance dispatched. Ashley was alive, but Mark didn’t know for how much longer. He couldn’t imagine getting this close only to watch her slip away.

Mark turned back around very slowly. “OK, Anthony. We did what you said.”

Anthony laughed psychotically. He hadn’t planned on this scenario. He had no idea what he was going to do now.

XLV

Showdown

T
o say I was afraid is an understatement, but I felt courage start to replace my fear when I saw my dad. I slowly reached my trembling hand from under my blouse and pulled Erica’s pistol out of my waistband. I’d been doubled over, pretending to have been shot in the stomach so I could keep the gun from falling. My arm was killing me, but the blood came in handy. I had smeared it all over the bottom half of my blouse.

My dad had taken me to the shooting range many times. Because he always kept a loaded gun in our home, he insisted that Mike and I know about gun safety, which meant how to care for them
and
how to shoot them. The gun had ammo in it; I had checked. I aimed it toward Anthony and cocked it from under my shirt.

He grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked it as hard as he could, thrusting my head back, forcing me to look up at him. I thought at any moment my neck might snap in two. His eyes looked dark and wild. It was as if the devil himself were staring down at me.

He pressed the icy, hard metal of his gun to the center of my forehead. I was seconds away from paying the ultimate price for something that never should have involved me. A lifetime of memories flashed at warp speed through my mind as an explosion suddenly tore through the silence. It echoed high above the treetops, sending frightened birds into flight and leaving our faces speckled with blood.