Marcie's Murder (50 page)

“
Tactically,
”
Billings
finished
,
trying to impress Steele with his knowledge of law enforcement terminology,
“
what
your people
first
thought
was
a hostage scenario
is now
a straight fugitive apprehension scenario with two suspects, both armed and dangerous.
”

Debbie
Stump
stepped
forward. “Rachel is
not
a suspect. You can’t hunt her down like a criminal, you just can’t.”

Steele looked at her for the first time. “You a friend of hers? That why you’re here?”

“Yes, I’m her friend.”

“You help her do this?” Steele
moved
toward her and looked at
Hank
. “Has she been questioned? Why hasn’t she been placed under arrest?”

“She’s not involved,”
Karen
said. “She
got here just a minute
ago. She’s
worried
about her friend.
Plus,
she’s
reached
the girl on her cell.
She’s your comm link to
the shooter
.”

Steele stared at Karen for a moment, then turned to
Billings
. “I want to talk to Detective Muncy.”

Billings
called Stanley
on the state police radio. On the other end
,
Stanley
gave his radio to Muncy
as Billings
handed his to Steele.

“Detective Muncy.”

“
Here, Sheriff.”

“Muncy, were you aware that this girl down here has been in touch with the female suspect?”

“Yeah, Sheriff.
So I heard
.”

“Why haven’t you made contact, then? T
o
talk her down?”

“Uh, Detective Savage advised that the tactical team should get into position first before we establish
ed
contact.”

Steele opened his mouth to say something when he saw
over
Karen’s
shoulder
that Deputy
Charleton
was trotting down the road toward them. “Stand by
,
”
he said into the radio.

They crossed the lawn in a group to meet
Charleton
at the edge of the loop.

“Crowd’s getting a little unruly, Sheriff,”
the deputy
said, a little out of breath. “We’ve stopped a couple of them from trying to get around us on foot, but they won’t take no for an answer much longer.”

“Call for backup,” Steele ordered.

“I did. They’re en route. Maybe if you talked to them, made some kind of a statement that would hold them for a while longer?”

Steele was an elected official and it didn’t take him very long to make up his mind. He turned to
Hank
and pointed at Debbie. “Get her up to Muncy and establish communication with the suspects on the double.”

Hank
watched Steele walk up the road toward the barricade.
His
eyes slid to
Billings. “Never mind your
ATV
.
W
e’ll
tak
e
her up in that.”
He
pointed at the helicopter.

At that moment they heard over
the
radio that the Cessna was pulling out and that the helicopter would assume aerial coverage of the scene.

“
We’d better hustle
,”
Hank
said
, “or we’ll miss our ride
.
”

“Goddam
m
it,” Karen complained, staring at the helicopter. “I hate those things.”

3
3

They
ascended the ridge and touched down in a patch of bare ground about a hundred yards short of the command post. The pilot turned and motioned them out the cabin door. “Best I can do!”

Karen found the ATV tracks that marked the path into the trees above them and led the way, cursing at the slope
, the fact that it was now mid-afternoon and she hadn’t eaten since breakfast this morning, idiot ex-cops who thought they could escape accountability, her shoes,
damned helicopters
,
and everything else she could think of. Debbie Stump followed, glancing over her shoulder occasionally at
Hank, who brought up the rear.

Hank smiled his patient smile at her.

After a long walk t
hey
reached
the
new
command post, which had been established at the edge of another small clearing with an unimpeded view of the top of the gully where the cabin was supposed to be located. They couldn’t see the cabin, nor could they see Rachel Meese, but Muncy assured them that both were
definitely
up there.

Hank lean
ed
against a tree
to
catch his breath
.
He heard
the helicopter report that the ATV had left the cabin and was climbing to the top of the
mountain
.
Stanley checked with his team and was informed that they
still
hadn’t reached their flanking positions
.

Muncy cursed. Morris was trying to escape along the top of the
mountain
.
“We’ve got to get up there
and head him off!”

“Helicopter,” Hank said.

“Good idea.” Muncy pointed at Stanley. “Call him back. He can take me up and drop me off. There’s a road or something up there,
right
?”

“He can’t land here and pick you up,” Stanley said. “It’s not like calling a taxi, for chrissakes.”

“Back where he let us off,” Hank said. He pushed away from the tree. “I’ll go with you.”

“
Let’s go
,” Muncy said
.

“What about the girl?” Detective
Savage interjected. “Is she still in position or did she pull out with him?”

“How the hell would I know?” Muncy complained, anxious to get into the air.

“Text her,” Karen said to Debbie.

Debbie took out her cell and began to compose a message.

“We can’t wait,” Muncy said. “Call the bird, tell him
we’ll be
down
at the clearing.”

“You’ll
need tactical support up there,” Stanley said.

“
Never mind,
I’ll go
with them
,” Savage said. “Stay here, find out if the girl’s still covering his escape
,
and deal with her if she’s still in position.”

Hank took a deep breath and led them back down the trail toward the clearing where they would meet the helicopter.

3
4

Debbie sat down with her back against a tree trunk and worked the keyboard of her cell phone. Karen crouched beside her, watching.

r
u
s
t?

Karen frowned. “What does that mean?”

y
.

“I said, ‘are you still there?’” Debbie explained without looking up from the phone, and she answered ‘yes.’”

poms
.

ihu
.

ruok?

Udh82
bme clm.

“Translate, translate,” Karen said. “What’s she saying?”

“I told her you were watching over my shoulder,
she said ‘I hear you,’
then I asked her if she was okay.”

Karen stared at th
e last entry, biting her lip. “
‘You’d hate to be me,’” she guessed.
“And the rest?”

“
‘Career-limiting move
.
’
”

“Call her. I want to talk to her.”

“I don’t think she’ll talk to you.”

“Ask her. Tell her I want to help her.”

Debbie hesitated, head tilted sideways as she stared at the screen.

cm,
she typed. Call me.

They waited in vain for a response. Stanley walked over and stared down at them. “What’s the word? She still there?”

“Just about to find out,” Karen replied calmly.

“I’ve got White getting into position. Either she gives herself up right now
,
or he’s going to take the shot
as soon as he’s got it
.”

“Whoa, hold on now, partner,” Karen said, standing up, “easy does it. Give us a chance to establish communication and talk to her, all right? She may be too scared to know what to do. Give me a chance to talk her down
.
”

Debbie’s cell phone began to play music, the unexpected sound punching
at
their taut nerves.

“Rache!” Debbie cried
into the phone
.
“
W
hat are you doing? Are you insane? These people are going to kill you!”

“Hold on, sweetheart,” Karen said, crouching down again and holding out her hand. “Let me talk to her.”

“The woman cop wants to talk to you,” Debbie said
, wiping
at
tears with her free hand
. “Yeah
, I think so.” She looked at Karen.
“
Stainer?”

Karen nodded.

“
Yeah
. Maybe you should talk to her, Rache. She’s trying to help you.”

Karen waited out several minutes of crying, coaxing
,
and pleading
, during which she turned to Stanley
.
“
G
ive me one of your radios.”

Stanley reluctantly handed one over. She clipped it to her belt at the small of her back, under her jacket.
“How about
some
cuffs?” Stanley hesitated, then passed her his handcuffs, which she slipped into her jacket pocket.
When she turned around,
Debbie
was holding
the phone
out
to her.
Nodding, she took it and lifted it to her ear.

“Rachel, this is Detective Stainer. Are you still in the same position
up there at the top of the gull
y?”

“Why should I tell you that?
” Rachel replied, her voice taut with stress.
“
You’ve probably got snipers ready to shoot me
in
the head.”

“Honey, I won’t lie to you, there’s a tactical team from the
s
tate
p
olice here and they’re in position to respond, but don’t you give them any reason to, all right? Just put that rifle down and show yourself with your hands on top of your head. You won’t get hurt if you do what I say
.
A
ll right?”

“T
hey’ll shoot me. I shot that cop. Is he dead?”

Karen began to walk forward to the edge of the clearing. “No
darlin,’
you barely
nicked his arm
. He’s fine.
The bleeding had already stopped by the time he got
back to the house
.
EMS looked him over
and h
e’s
fine
.” She chuckled. “
Wha
t was up with that shot, anyway
? I thought you were an expert marksman.”

Rachel cried for a moment into the phone. “I was
. . .
afraid I’d
. . .
killed him.”

Karen passed between two trees and slowly moved out into the clearing. “Naw, he won’t even get any time off work. You should
have
shot him in the foot, made it worth his while.”

Rachel laughed through her tears. “I didn’
t mean to hit him. I was shooting at the tire.”

“You missed, honey.”

“Yeah
.
”
It
took a moment
for her
to regain her composure.
Finally she said,
“I’m really sorry about all this
.
”