Lullaby for the Nameless (35 page)

She turned a bend and could see the front of the old house. The roof was sagging, and the porch looked ready to give up. It had probably sat empty through the better part of two winters, hence the wear and tear.

Craig’s vehicle was ahead of her, parked on the side of the road. No, not parked. The driver’s door was hanging open.

Ashlyn got out of her car, pulled her gun out of its holster and walked toward the Rodeo.

She scanned the road and the edges of the woods. Nothing.

Her fingers tightened on the gun.

The sense of déjà vu as she looked inside Craig’s Rodeo, shattered glass shards scattered all over the floor and the bloodstained seats, was overwhelming.

Process of elimination. If Parker had Craig and Craig was wounded, he’d pick the burial grounds. It was closer.

On the ground there were drops of blood, leading to the treed area that led to the burial grounds.

She followed the path. The woods had an eerie stillness to them. Not the kind of midday quiet that might be disrupted by the occasional chirp of birds or scuffle of leaves. It was the kind of quiet where everyone, or every thing, holds its breath collectively.

The way her heart hammered in her ears, she was certain Parker could hear her coming. Ashlyn knew it was ridiculous, but she still couldn’t shake the feeling.

Tain and Craig had been drawn into this, but the moment she’d heard it was Parker, she knew. He was there for her.

Craig was already out there, injured. Without knowing how long he’d been at the property, how bad his injuries were, it could be worse.

There was no way she could let Tain take the risk she was taking.

To her right, something caught her attention. A large, dark splotch against a tree.

Ashlyn looked around as she knelt down and reached out with her free hand.

She touched the substance and lifted her fingers to her nose.

Blood.

If Craig had stopped to try to wrap his wound…

Or even to catch his breath…

She stood and scanned the ground in all directions. The blood trail was gone.

Ashlyn knew she was close to the burial grounds. Through the woods, she could see the small clearing where they’d found the girls. To the right, there were trees and rocks, but she found no sign of blood as she scanned the obvious gaps in the forest.

Craig could be hiding anywhere.

A flicker of movement to her left caught her attention and she spun around, gun ready, but there was nothing there.

Ashlyn took a step forward toward the clearing.

Snap.

She turned, looking for the source of the sound. Something—or someone—not far behind her had cracked a twig, but she couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

It must have been her imagination.

The rocky outcropping that overlooked the gorge was where Parker sat. It was a ballsy place to be, out in the open, a rifle across his lap.

As though he had nothing to fear.

She crouched down and started inching her way around the woods on the edge of the clearing to get a better view.

Silence. If Craig was still alive he wasn’t taking the bait.

“You got a real martyr complex, Nolan. Let me tell you something, this guy Hobbs, he had it all worked out.”

Ashlyn stopped behind a large tree.

“Women screw men to get what they want. And then they find other ways to screw ’em. The girls Hobbs brought here, they all failed him. All except one.”

Ashlyn surveyed the woods to her left. She was running out of places where she could stay covered unless she worked her way to the right. There was a rock a few feet ahead of her, but she needed Parker to keep talking.

To be distracted.

“How’d you feel when you found out your little girlfriend lost the baby?”

Shit. She’d never had a chance to tell Craig…

“Or didn’t you know?”

The time had never seemed right, not the few times they’d spoken on the phone when she was at work. He’d come back after the failed search for Lisa Harrington, packed a bag and taken a temporary transfer.

And another and another…

Parker laughed. “She gets herself pregnant, plans to screw you out of every cent, but she’s not even telling you she’s havin’ your kid.”

Nothing but the sound of a soft breeze rustling the trees.

Craig had walked away from their relationship, and for a time her grief had turned to rage, until she believed she hated him, but here she was, standing in the woods, gun in her hand, praying he was okay.

Worrying about how he was coping with what Parker had said.

Parker was quiet for a moment. Just long enough to let his words sink in. Ashlyn felt a wave of nausea threaten to topple her, and a spine-chilling cold.

Sometimes, you hear something and know instantly it’s true, despite the fact that you don’t want to believe it.

“Millie, Millie, Millie. All that guilt. I did her a favor. Put her out of her misery,” Parker said. “ ’Course, it worked out much better for me that he didn’t off Millie. She came in handy.

“So tell me, Nolan, if she really wanted you, why’d you two break up right after she lost the baby?”

Parker tightened his grip on the gun and picked it up. “Better you see her for the bitch she is.”

“You think she doesn’t care, why d’you think she’d come looking for me?”

The voice was labored and somewhere to Ashlyn’s right. She started scanning the trees, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

Parker hopped down from where he sat, his actions revealing the bulk under his coat, and walked toward the trees and rocks on the other side of the clearing, moving slowly, carefully, as he scanned the woods.

Careful enough to wear a bulletproof vest, but too cocky to think of the risks of having a loud conversation in the woods. Too cocky to remember he might not hear her coming if he wasn’t listening.

“Appearances. Can’t have everyone else seeing what a cold-hearted bitch she really is.”

“You…don’t…know.”

Ashlyn moved to another tree. Parker turned and for a moment his eyes narrowed as he scanned the woods a little to her left.

He turned back toward Craig’s voice. “I ought to shoot you again, put you out of your misery. Hell, when I beat that bitch and she miscarried, I did you a favor. You should be thanking me.”

Silence.

“No offense, Nolan, but I was kind of glad I didn’t kill you in the woods before. It was risky sneaking out there to leave the body. But I had to make sure you got involved.

“I didn’t even realize it was you I was shooting at until I heard it at the bar later. Went to all the work of tracking down those remains and planting the clues for nothing. Told ya, Millie was good for some things.”

Parker looked at his watch. “You aren’t provin’ as useful as I thought you would, though.”

“Sorry…let ya down.”

“Sure you are. Don’t worry, Nolan. She’ll come. And this time, there might be better ways to show your old girlfriend who’s boss before I deal with her, once and for all.”

Something between a roar and a scream came from the woods, and the sound of movement. Ashlyn started to move out from behind the tree, but she felt something grab her from behind. She’d never had a lot of direct contact with Kurdy during the investigation, but in the aftermath he’d been brought in for questioning, and she’d seen him at the station. He’d cleaned up since then, hair a respectable length, clothes with a tidiness that defied the fact that he’d been on the run since allegedly murdering his wife and children.

He had a shotgun in his hand.

“I tried to call her, but I keep getting a message saying that the cellular customer is out of the service area.”

Tain closed his phone without another word and ran into Winters’s office. “She’s gone out there.”

Winters looked up. “You’re sure?”

“Positive. The guy who bought Campbell’s old property is a former cop with a grudge against us. Her. He was charged with assaulting Ashlyn a few months ago, but they didn’t have enough to get a conviction.”

“Christ, Tain, I thought you were the loose cannon,” Winters said as he grabbed his coat. “We’re not making the same mistakes again.”

“Too late for that.”

“What I mean is, we all get Kevlars, and we take enough backup.”

Tain looked at the nameplate outside the sergeant’s office and thought of the one that used to be there. Thought of the man who’d paid the price for his impulsiveness and nodded.

He’d take the risk for his partner, but it wasn’t something he could ask of anyone else.

She sat up. Her gun lay in the dead leaves beside her.

She grabbed it as she forced herself to her feet.

Why?

The last few moments before the blackness were hazy, but starting to come back.

Parker’s taunting.

Craig taking the bait.

Kurdy…

Why hit her and leave her?

Why not kill her?

Why not take her to Parker?

She stood for a moment. There was nothing but an eerie silence. She took a step forward, swayed and reached out with her hand.

There was a body lying in the clearing and another on the ground not far away. Ashlyn staggered back as she processed what she was seeing. The stillness, the pool of blood oozing out over the ground…

It was too late for him. She forced herself forward, and when she stood over Parker she could see his blank eyes stared up at nothing.

Dead. No question, but she still kicked the gun away and bent down to check that he had no pulse. That was when she saw the other gun. Set on a rock.

The gun that had been in Kurdy’s hands.

A faint moan from the other body to her left broke the silence. She knelt beside Craig and pulled his hand back from the wound, then gently unwrapped the shirt he’d tied around it and kept her focus on his injuries. It took less than a moment for her to rewrap the wound.

It wasn’t until he lifted his hand again and touched her arm that she met his gaze.

It was one of those moments when no words were necessary.