Embattled Hearts 1 (20 page)

Shannon fought tears constantly. It was one thing to think she’d caused a blip on some guy’s radar she’d never seen before, but to imagine it was somebody she’d cooked for, and held when she cried over a lost patient, was disheartening. No, it was flat-out demoralizing. It made her question every friendship she’d made. Her eyes drifted to John as he fiddled with one of the monitors. Were she and John actually as connected as she thought? Or was this just a friendly arrangement in his eyes?

Shannon was frazzled and aggravated by the time Lisa pulled in the driveway a few minutes later. She gave her long enough to get into the house, then called over. “Lisa, can you come over here for a minute? I really need to talk to you about something.”

“Sure, Shannon. Give me a minute and I’ll be over.”

John suddenly turned away and held the earpiece in his ear. “Go ahead.” He looked at the monitors and tapped a couple of buttons. One of the cameras viewing the outside corner of the house came into view, and Duncan leaned in to look. Lisa walked across the screen and disappeared, and there was a knock at the door. John nodded to her, and Shannon walked over to let her in.

Lisa wore her standard blue scrubs, and had her hair up in a knot on the back of her head. Dark circles shadowed her eyes, but she smiled at Shannon when she walked into the house. When she caught sight of Duncan and John, though, she frowned. Her eyes widened dramatically when she saw all the camera equipment and monitors.

Shannon closed the door behind her, and turned to introduce the two men. “Lisa, these are two of my bosses, Duncan Wilde and John Palmer. Guys, this is Lisa Dixon.”

“Hello.”

Shannon motioned to a chair. “Would you sit down for a minute, please?”

“Sure.”

Lisa was looking more and more leery. It was an awkward situation to walk into. She forced a smile and crossed her legs, leaning back into the cushion. “So, what can I do for you guys?”

Shannon sat on the corner of the couch closest to her. John snugged his chair in behind her, and Duncan stood at the fireplace mantle. Lisa may not have realized it, but they had positioned themselves to come to Shannon’s defense if she needed it.

“Do you remember me telling you about that stalker I had? Several years ago.”

Lisa frowned and nodded. “Of course. He’s in prison, though, right?”

“Yes. But some things have been happening recently that made me think he was out.”

“Oh, God—he’s not, is he?” Lisa leaned forward, and seemed genuinely alarmed.

“No, he’s not. But somebody is making me think he is. They’re doing the same kinds of things he did.”

Shannon paused, like John had told her to do, and let the silence stretch out. Theoretically, it was to make Lisa uncomfortable enough to talk, but she stayed quiet.

“Anyway,” Shannon continued, “night before last I started getting text messages threatening to hurt me. They intimated threatening my boyfriend.” She made a motion to John. “That cell phone was found in the Denver PD booking room this morning, under the counter.”

Lisa paled, and her jaw slackened. “What?”

“The cell phone was found under the counter in the booking room. Lisa, did you work at the jail yesterday?”

The woman blinked heavily. “I did. They called me in for a couple of hours.”

Shannon swallowed hard. She knew what she needed to ask. “And did you put a cell phone under the counter?”

“I did,” Lisa admitted, readily enough. “Jimmy said that it belonged to one of his buddies, and he’d left it at his apartment. He asked me to leave it there for him to pick up.”

Lisa seemed genuine. Shannon glanced at John, but she couldn’t read anything from his face. Something occurred to her. “Wait a minute. Your Jimmy? As in, your schmuck boyfriend Jimmy that plays around?”

Lisa nodded.

“What’s your boyfriend’s name, Lisa?” John had rolled closer.

“James Wilkins. He’s a road officer at Denver PD.”

Shannon felt her own face pale, and she lurched to her feet. She jogged to the kitchen and snatched the business card from the refrigerator.
J. Wilkins
. She took it back to Lisa. “Is this him?”

“Yes, have you talked to him?”

Shannon felt the room dim around her. She dropped to the couch and leaned forward over her knees. A broad hand rested on her back. “It’s okay, Shannon. We’ll get him. It’s okay, babe.”

For a few minutes, all she could do was concentrate on breathing. The man stalking her had been right next door, at least part of the time. But how would he know the details about Gerbowski? The Pepsi can, and the rose petals?

John waited patiently at her side.

“I’m okay. Just shocked.”

Lisa was crying, and seemed bewildered. Shannon still couldn’t tell if it was an act or not. Her emotion seemed genuine, but Shannon had learned the hard way she wasn’t always the best judge of character.

Duncan moved toward Lisa. “Ms. Dixon, do you know where Jimmy is now?”

She shook her head. “He was at the house for a little while last night, but he’s gone now.”

“Does he have a key to your house?”

Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Yes. Can you explain to me please what’s going on? I’m very confused. I feel like I’m in trouble.”

Shannon reached out and clasped Lisa’s hand, in spite of John’s earlier warning. “We think Jimmy’s been stalking me. We’re just not sure why.”

Lisa shook her head in disbelief. “Why would he do that?”

“We’re not sure, Lisa, but this is the best information we’ve gotten.”

She looked up at Duncan as he stepped closer to her chair, cell phone in hand. “Lisa, what kind of vehicle does Jimmy drive? Do you know any of his personal information? Birthday, social, anything like that?”

“He drives a big black truck, four-wheel-drive—not sure what kind, though. And his birthday is June twentieth. Not sure about his social, though.”

Duncan was inputting information to text somebody and nodding his head. “Good, good. When does he work next?”

“Should be this morning. We kind of pass in the night most of the time. He works days and I work nights or swing shift. Sometime we overlap in the morning and he comes to see me at the hospital or the jail if they’ve called me in.” She looked at Shannon. “Did he flatten your tires?”

“I have no idea.” It did make sense, though. “Lisa, I’ve never seen a truck like that in your driveway. Where does he park?”

Lisa made a motion with her hand. “Somewhere a couple blocks away. He said he doesn’t want to run the chance of the people he’s arrested figuring out where he lives or who he hangs out with.”

John rubbed his hand across her back again. Shannon was so grateful he was here with her. She’d be floundering around completely if he wasn’t.

Suddenly, he slapped a hand to his ear. “Preston? Preston! Answer me, damn it.”

He powered the chair to the monitors, but Shannon couldn’t see any movement anywhere. Duncan stepped up behind him and leaned over.

The bottom fell out of her stomach. Why wasn’t he responding?

“Do you see him? What did you hear?”

John didn’t even glance at her. “I heard a scuffle, and a couple of bangs, and then nothing.” He held a finger to the earpiece. “Preston! Respond!”

Duncan slipped off his suit jacket. Shannon was surprised to see a leather harness wrapped around his broad shoulders, holding two black pistols, butt out. She’d never seen him wear anything like it before. But then, he was the boss. He ran the show. The other guys wore their guns regularly.

“What was his last position?”

“Northeast rooftop.”

Duncan put on a headset and slipped out the back sliding glass doors. His limp was completely gone. Her heart pounded in fear, and it was all she could do to hold it together.

Lisa tightened her hands on Shannon’s. “What’s going on?”

John glared at Lisa. “We think your boyfriend is trying to hurt Shannon. At the very least, he’s making her life hell. Do you have any idea why he would be doing that?”

Lisa shook her head repeatedly, crying all the harder. “I don’t know why he would do that. He’s a nice guy.”

Shannon handed her the tissue box from the end table and Lisa blew her nose. John turned back to the monitors to watch for movement.

There was a ping to the outside of the house, and one of the small windows beside the big bay window shattered.

“Get down!” John yelled.

Shannon did as she was told immediately, pulling Lisa down beside her on the hardwood floor. They huddled together behind the couch, shielding their heads with their arms as glass continued to rain down. Shannon tried to look for John, but he was out of sight. “John?”

“I’m fine. Shannon, head to your bedroom. Get away from all this glass!”

Shannon didn’t need to be told twice. Skittering on her knees, clutching Lisa’s shirt, she pushed and pulled her way into the hallway.

“Lock up and don’t come out until I tell you,” he yelled.

She looked up at the very last second before she lost sight. John was at the window, Beretta out in front of himself, aiming through the shattered window and swirling snow. Shannon thought he actually looked vibrant, and alive, protecting her, and her heart swelled. But she didn’t want anything to happen to him. “John, be careful!”

He glanced at her for a split second and grinned rakishly. “No problem, babe!”

Shannon continued down the hallway, Lisa right behind her. Inside her bedroom, she closed and locked the door. Lisa went up on her knees and pushed the bureau beside the door across the entryway, sealing them in. Shannon allowed herself to sit against the bed and catch her breath.

She didn’t understand what was going on, but somebody had definitely fired two shots into the front of her house. Closing her eyes, she strained to hear anything from the front room over the sound of her own raspy breathing.

Something pinched in the side of her neck.

Shannon opened her eyes to find Lisa kneeling in front of her. In her hand was a clear syringe, the needle bare. She looked at her neighbor in confusion, but her sight was beginning to dim. “What was that—”

Lisa grinned and backed away as Shannon slumped forward. Her last conscious thought was that John was going to be pissed.

*****

A frisson of unease chased across his shoulders as he lost sight of Shannon, but he couldn’t be distracted. He scanned everything he could out the front, but nothing moved. “Duncan, update.”

“Following a trail, no sign of Preston. Over.”

“Roger. Two rounds just hit the front of the house, originating due east. Over.”

“Roger. Trail goes in that direction.”

“Roger. Out.”

John fought to keep his own gun steady as he scanned the front yard, but he didn’t see shit. Frustration ate at him. He wanted to be the one tracking that trail and chasing down the bad guy. He glanced at the monitors, looking for movement. Lisa had her back to the bedroom camera and she was leaning over Shannon, who was sitting on the floor beside the bed. That frisson of unease turned into an all-out quake as he realized Shannon was slumped over, apparently unconscious. Lisa was binding her hands with something.

“Duncan! It’s Lisa. She’s got Shannon in the bedroom.”

He shoved his chair down the hallway as fast as he could, and slammed into the door knees first. The doorknob refused to turn, and he battered at the wood with his fists. “Lisa, don’t do this. She’s your friend. Lisa, Lisa!”

But there was no response. John shoved and pounded until his hands were bruised, but he couldn’t get the door to budge. In frustration, he blew out the door lock with his gun, but the door itself still didn’t budge. He screamed Shannon’s name, but he knew she wasn’t going to answer. “Duncan! Go to her bedroom window. They must be taking her out that way.”

“On it.”

Time completely stopped as he waited for some response from inside the room, but it was completely silent.

“Scanning. Multiple tracks outside her window heading away from the house. I think they’ve got her, John.”

John rocked back in his chair as if he’d been shot, unable to even begin to assimilate the loss he felt. For a moment his vision narrowed to a pinprick before stabilizing. “We have to find her,” he whispered. “We have to find her.”

He powered out to the monitors and rewound the last minute. Lisa, substantially bigger than Shannon, had actually picked her up enough to get her head and shoulders to the windowsill, then black-gloved hands reached in to pull her limp body through. John tried to narrow in on the window, but the stationary camera only caught the corner of the sill. The assailant outside pulled Shannon through the window, then Lisa followed them through. The room was motionless for ninety-six seconds, then Duncan dropped into the room. John watched him shove the bureau out of the way that had been barricading the door.

Duncan jogged into the living room, his eyes connecting with John’s in silent understanding. He dangled the tennis bracelet transmitter from his fingers. “This was on the floor beside the bed. But we’ll find her. Anything on the cameras we need to know about?”

John dragged his gaze from the bracelet and shook his head. He turned the chair toward the front door. “We need to get after them. Did you find Preston?”

“Yes. He’s groggy but getting his truck. He was darted with a tranquilizer. If he’d been smaller, like Shannon’s size, it would have knocked him out for a while.”

John skidded down the ramp, bumping into the front of Duncan’s truck. Preston’s Hummer idled beside it, and John maneuvered around to the passenger side. His disability had never frustrated him more than at that moment and he lifted himself into the seat and had to wait for Duncan to fold and pack away his chair. They were wasting precious time. As soon as he was inside, Duncan was on the phone with Denver PD, tracking down Officer Wilkins’ information.

Preston had blood running down the side of his neck, but he looked okay otherwise. Pissed, but okay. He accelerated out of the driveway and took two right turns, until they were in the alleyway behind Shannon’s house. Tracks were all over the snow, and they followed them out of the alley, then lost them when they got onto the cleared street.