Gem Stone (27 page)

Doris parked the car and they got out. "We can go in through the back door to the kitchen."

Gem walked around to the back of the house where everything appeared normal, untouched. She walked inside and through the house to the living room where they'd been sleeping. Their bedding still covered the floor and couches. Smoke and water damage was evident everywhere.

Depressing.

Still the largest portion of the house was untouched. She hoped the fire chief would let them stay. Surely, they could live in the back half of the house while the restoration people did their job?

But that was adult business and since when did adults ever make sense? Walking back toward the kitchen, she found Doris puttering around, setting up more coffee. Gem headed upstairs to check out the damage to her room. It looked normal – except for the smell. Her laptop was still on her table and the window, still open, as she'd left it. Smoke permeated the air, but the smell was much less than on the other side of the house. Her laptop appeared untouched but it was hard to really tell.

She booted it up. If they'd wanted to cause trouble or remove evidence, taking it would have been the easiest and most obvious way.

Gem gave herself a moment to relax and realized she was finally home, safe and sound. After a sigh of relief she turned to her laptop. She brought up her pictures and wondered what to do with them. Who could she send the pictures to? Someone in law enforcement maybe. They could determine if the pictures held any important evidence that would point them in the right direction.

"The young deputy maybe, and the Dayton sheriff," she said aloud.

Finding their email addresses took several minutes and then a few more to attach the files. After she hit send she figured she needed to go down and help Doris.

John had arrived and was in the kitchen, his head next to Doris's. Their lowered tones spoke of the seriousness of their situation.

"What's the matter now?" Gemma hated secrets and with what she'd been through in her life, and especially these last few days, she wanted everything out in the open.

John and Doris exchanged long looks. Then as if bolstering himself to deliver more bad news, John said, "Misty is doing better. The doctors expect to release her tomorrow. That gives us a little time to get organized here."

"Damn." Gem plunked herself down on the closest chair, more than a little confused. "I wish she could just come home today."

"Have to trust that it's the right thing for her. That her doctors know what's best. Now I've just finished arguing with the insurance company." At the look on her face, John nodded. "Based on the recommendation of the fire chief, we're only going to use the back of the house on both floors. That means you'll all move upstairs into the rooms above the kitchen. There're two bedrooms at the back, one for the girls and one for the guys. Stephen and Misty will be both back soon, but we're not going to have any other additions until the renovations are done."

Doris looked anxious when she told them, "It's going to be difficult for a while. To get upstairs and down, you'll have to use the outside stairs to the balcony. They're going to wall off the front room, temporarily."

"Staying here is our decision." John hugged his wife and took a long slug of coffee as if needing the hit. "We had to fight for that as it is. There will be a lot of disruption over the next several months while the renos happen. And they're going to start immediately – the restoration company should be here any minute with dryers and wet vacs to help mop up the mess. They're bringing ozone machines to get rid of the smoke smell so we'll have to be outside for most of the day too. At least it's a clear day."

"Good. The sooner they start, the sooner they're finished." Gem approved. Not only that, she was delighted to hear her friends would be back and no others joining them. She liked the unit as it was. And being outside fell into their plans to return to the site…

"Now I know you don't want to go back to juvie while this is happening––"

She snorted. "You're right there."

"It will be noisy," warned Doris.

"Yes, but we'll be at home." Gem opened her mouth, to mention the creek again, then decided against it.

"What?" prompted John.

She made a face. Then looked at them both straight on. "The boys and I want to go back to the place where this all started. Where I took the pictures and the creek area beside it. We've been before and never found anything, but we are coming from a different understanding now. We'd like to check it out again."

John's face hardened. Doris immediately said, "Oh I don't think that's a good idea. Surely, that's for the sheriff to do?"

"He's got bigger things to worry on right now. And will he see what we might see?"

"We aren't looking for trouble." Reid said as he marched into the kitchen and sat down beside Gemma. "But we have to get to the bottom of this before someone does get killed."

"We have to be outside anyway and we won't stay long. Come with us if you like." Mark spoke from the doorway, and Reid nodded. "Or have a deputy come with us just in case we do find something… But you'd better ask for that escort, not us."

John pursed his lips. "Let me call the sheriff." He walked out while everyone waited in silence. When he returned a few minutes later, he ran his fingers through his graying hair. "Well, he doesn't like the idea."

"No surprise there," muttered Gem.

"However, Deputy Barry Smithson is going to come by and walk around with you. Apparently he took a crack over the head last night and he's looking for a little blood himself."

Gemma grinned. "Good. Then maybe he'll be on our side."

"You can go on one condition – call us to check in every half hour. You all have your phones back, so no excuses."

As Mark opened his mouth to protest, John held up a hand. "It's that or you're not going. I can get you doing stuff around the yard, like raking and stuff, chopping wood…"

"That's fine." Reid pulled out his phone and synced the time with John. Mark and Gem checked theirs too. "Okay then. We'll wait for Barry out front and check back in half an hour."

"Right."

***

Danny dropped the phone on his desk. He couldn't sort through the myriad of emotions running through him.

The Dayport Sheriff had found the SUV. And the owner.

Danny still couldn't believe the story he'd just heard. No, the driver wasn't talking. But he'd been found with fake IDs on him. And lots of them. Including ones he recognized for the EPA.

But it was his name that made Danny sick inside. Uncle Jed. Young Barry's Uncle Jed. And now he knew Uncle Jed was a forger. And had a long rap sheet...for arson.

Surely it wasn't possible? He had to check this out himself. See the evidence for himself. Hear the words himself.

Surely there was a satisfactory explanation? And more than the comment he remembered Ian telling him about the pair the other day. How Barry and his uncle were tight.

There had to be another explanation.

Danny smiled grimly. "You're coming with me to sort this out."

Stepping back out of his boss's way, Ian asked, "Sort out what?"

"Some information I just received." Danny still had trouble with it. The name wasn't conclusive…but it was a connection. Uncle Jed. One tenuous at best. But it
was
Barry's Uncle Jed.

He had to check it out. The sick feeling in his stomach said there was something here – something that he had to get to the bottom of.

"Any idea how many toys Barry has been buying lately?"

***

The three raced outside. Gem detoured and snagged up her camera. "You never know," she said with a grin.

Ten minutes later the young deputy pulled up in front of them and got out. "Are we walking or driving?"

"Walking," they cried out in unison. He nodded, grabbed his hat and stepped up beside them. "Good enough."

Mark set the pace, leading, with the deputy beside him. Reid and Gem followed. They headed back to the wall they'd climbed over the first night and re-enacted that walk Gemma had done with Misty the first time.

Ten minutes later they approached the spot where Gem took the pictures.

Gem took up the same position she had that night. "I was right here. Facing that way. Went a little closer and kept shooting." She demonstrated with her camera. "Somewhere around here Misty showed up and started bugging me and I rushed to get a few more pictures before leaving."

Gem paused, trying to remember the sequence of events. She pointed and continued, "Over there. We saw bright lights. Then the lights turned our way and we dropped to the ground. We bolted for home first chance. We'd made it to the other side of the stone wall when we heard them walking along the wall and saw their light shining in our directions. Once they passed by, we climbed in the window, with Mark's help."

She walked closer to where the men must have been standing. "We've checked this area once already. I don't see anything new."

"They obviously followed you." Mark walked toward the area. "The old well house where Misty was stashed is just over there. Easy for them to reach and it's well hidden – so even better."

"They had to have known about it before, to have been able to make use of it on the spur of the moment like that," Reid pointed out.

"There's nothing here?" Frustrated, Gem stood in the area and glared at a whole lot of nothing.

"There's no reason why there would be," Mark said, standing with his hands on his hips, looking around. "We don't even know what they were doing here."

Reid pointed out the many small breaks in the bushes that could have been made by people walking. "There's no way to know if that's how those small paths were made because we all came through here the night Misty went missing. Or they could just be deer paths."

"Going this way is the shortest route to the main road…" Deputy Barry motioned in that direction as he stood beside Reid. "And the creek is just over there."

The deputy headed through the bushes, following one of the small paths. They others fell into step behind him. They came out onto the road within a hundred feet.

"I didn't know the road was so close the creek here. You'd never know it when you stand in the trees," Gem said in wonder, looking around. Bushes, trees and tall grass had taken over. From here, the home wasn't even visible.

"So they drove the car from John's to here, not wanting to take it on the rough old road," Mark suggested. "They drugged, tied and dumped Misty off where they could grab her again easily enough, so they could go back and check on the rest of us."

That sounded reasonable to Gem. She stepped to the side of the path and looked back. Large branches overhung the shoulder of the road where she could see multiple tracks leading to the spot. "What's the chance those belong to the kidnapper's vehicles?"

The deputy stepped up beside her, then grabbed his phone and called the sheriff. Gem didn't bother listening because she was considering the tire impressions. The tracks would place the vehicles here but that still wouldn't explain
why
they were here.

She backtracked to the pump house and stepped inside.

The interior was dim without windows. There was no residue on the floor or even empty cans. Nothing. She chewed her bottom lip and thought on that for a bit. It only made sense that they'd have double-checked and cleaned everything up as fast as possible. "Even if we find evidence of their presence, that doesn't prove anything. Loads of people come here."

"All we can do is look more closely." Mark headed toward the creek bank and stopped to survey the area. Gem scrambled over a tree trunk to join him. Reid moved down the bank toward the road. "If they dumped something like chemicals into the water, there might not be anything left now."

"Did you see any chemicals?" The deputy walked around beside them. "Maybe chemicals to clean up that spill that was mentioned in the statements we read. From those guys picked up in Dayport."

"I didn't see much in the van when I was tied up. Mostly a bucket, a couple small jugs and shovel." Mark said. "They had some small tubes and a little kit, as if they were checking something or maybe testing something."

The deputy frowned. "Still, I'd think they should have contacted us if there was a spill of something toxic. But if they didn't, they could've just done their tests without telling anyone."

"Or maybe those men weren't government to begin with. We didn't believe them before so let's not get sidelined by their cover story now," Gem said, a frown on her face. She shrugged. "I prefer the idea of an accident spill over thinking they were using the creek as a test site for a bio-weapon or something?"

Mark stared at her in horror. "You're mind is incredibly creepy, you know that?"