Renewing Lost Love (8 page)

The next time he wakes up he finds himself
shackled to a hospital bed with armed guards posted outside his
door.

******

Just as Pinky walks out the door of the
hospital in Phoenix to fly back to the ranch his cell phone rings,
“Pinky.”

“Mr. Williams, this is Richard Dean of the
FBI. I wanted to let you know that James Bixby is currently in
custody in Missoula, Montana. He is under guard in a hospital
there. It seems he tried to hold up a convenience store in a small
town just north of Missoula. He was shot as he was fleeing by a
deputy that recognized him. Anyway, he shouldn’t be giving you
anymore problems.”

A wave of relief flows over Pinky. “That’s
really good news, Mr. Dean. Thank you for letting me know,”
responds Pinky.

As Pinky flies back to the ranch in Wyoming
he thinks about Jasmine and the things Melanie told him she had
endured at the hands of James Bixby. It’s a shame that bullet
didn’t hit its mark. He would like nothing better than to get his
hands on the man and give him a taste of some of what he put her
through. At least he is in custody now, he can be thankful for that
and also that Jasmine is safe in the hospital in Phoenix getting
the help she needs to recover from his abuse. He can’t wait for the
day when she is truly and forever his.

******

I am so happy to be in the hospital in
Phoenix. I feel I am finally getting the help I need to get past
this nightmare. I really like my doctor. He is very understanding
and seems to know exactly the right questions to ask to get me to
remember the things I have tried so hard to forget. It doesn’t take
me long to realize the mind games that James Bixby has played with
me for years.

The second day I am at the hospital, I have a
consultation with the plastic surgeon that removed Dylan’s scar. He
is very confident he can remove my scar and make me look normal
again. The only thing he won’t be able to do is give me back the
feeling and movement I have lost in my face. He did explain that
once all of the scar tissue is removed some movement and feeling
may return. I will just have to be patient and wait for the results
of the surgery.

******

A few days after returning to the ranch the
Drake Security team is deployed on a search and rescue mission to
the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee. A six year old boy was either
kidnapped or wandered away from a campground twenty four hours ago.
The weather is expected to deteriorate and all available resources
are being requested. The Drake Security team is widely acclaimed
for their excellent tracking skills and the FBI has requested their
assistance.

After being briefed at the search central
command post, Bear, Stump and Pinky head out on foot. Having lived
in the woods of Montana for nearly thirty years, Bear is an
excellent tracker and picks up the boy’s trail almost
immediately.

He follows the trail for almost a mile then
he turns to Stump and Pinky and says, “Look, another set of prints
are following him. It looks like a grown man with small feet or a
woman with very large feet wearing rubber soled boots.”

Scoot and Goose are flying overhead in the
helicopter listening to the conversation of the men on the ground
and monitoring their location using GPS technology.

A few hundred yards down the path Bear says,
“The boy must have realized he was being followed because now he’s
running.”

Steadily making progress the three men are
surprised when the trail suddenly ends at a cliff abruptly dropping
straight down and hidden by the undergrowth. Peering over the edge
they can see the young boy lying on a narrow ledge a hundred feet
below the rim. Bear says, “Damn! Do you think there’s any chance he
survived?”

Pinky says, “I don’t know, but we’re going to
have to go after him either way.” He ties a rope to a tree and
prepares to repel down the cliff. “What do you think happened to
the person that was following him?”

Bear says, “It looks like they went over the
side too. They may have fallen further down the side. Maybe you’ll
be able to see them when you get down to the boy.”

Scoot speaks from the helicopter, “It looks
like there might be a body at the bottom amid some trees. I’ll
lower Goose down to check it out after we get Pinky and the
boy.”

Pinky says, “Goose, get the basket ready to
lower down to me. If the boy somehow survived, we will want to move
him as little as possible.” Then he lowers himself over the side of
the cliff.

Pinky’s heart is pounding with dread. The boy
is such a tiny little thing to have fallen so far. It makes his
heart ache to think of someone so young dying in such a tragic way.
When Pinky reaches the boy he is shocked and thrilled to find him
still alive with a strong heartbeat. It looks like he landed on top
of a prickly thorn bush that cushioned his fall. He excitedly calls
up to Scoot, “The boy’s still alive! He landed on top of a thorny
bush. Send down the basket.”

With no room to maneuver on the narrow ledge,
Pinky secures himself to the rope allowing him to use both hands to
move the boy. Carefully picking him up and placing him in the
basket he signals Goose to raise him back to the helicopter. The
little boy is as cute as he can be with red hair and freckles and
Pinky whispers a quick prayer for his recovery. He looks just like
a son he and Jasmine might have someday.

Then he radios Scoot and the other guys, “I’m
going on down to the bottom. Be ready to send my stuff down.”

Scoot says, “We’ll drop off the boy and be
back as soon as we can.”

After the helicopter flies away taking the
boy back to the command post and medical help Pinky repels down the
rest of the way to the bottom of the cliff. Leaning over the body
of the adult that was following the boy he is shocked to once again
find them alive. He shakes his head in amazement, this is one lucky
lady. Radioing back up to Stump and Bear he says, “This is a female
park ranger and she’s still alive, but barely.”

Bear says, “Scoot just radioed to tell us the
weather is moving in fast and he’s not going to be able to make it
back until it clears. It looks like we’re on our own. Do you want
us to come down there or what?”

Looking at the steep terrain surrounding him
and the limited area for moving around Pinky says, “No, there’s not
enough room. I think I can handle this. I’m going to build a
shelter and try to get a fire going for some warmth. You guys head
on back to the command post. We’ll be all right until tomorrow. I
have spare batteries for the radio so I’ll be able to communicate
with you if I need to. Lower down my backpack, the first aid
supplies, and a second sleeping bag please.”

The attach Pinky’s backpack and the other
requested items to the rope and let them slide down to him then
head back to the command post. Pinky examines the park ranger and
determines she has a broken leg and a broken arm. He can’t tell
about spinal cord or internal injuries so he tries not to move her
more than necessary. He applies a cervical collar and inflatable
splints to her broken arm and leg. She is unconscious so she
probably has head injuries too.

He then sets about preparing a shelter. The
weather is predicted to be really nasty for the next several hours
so he needs to get them in a safe place. Once he has a shelter
prepared under an overhang of rock from the cliff that has a stand
of evergreens in front of it to serve as a wind break, he digs a
deep fire pit, gathers wood and starts a fire. Then he carefully
moves the park ranger underneath the shelter and places her inside
the spare sleeping bag with several instant heat packs to provide
her additional warmth. Please God, don’t let her have spinal
injuries!

When the storm hits it is brutal. The wind
whistles through the trees and sleet and freezing rain pelt the
area coating the trees and making moving around the steep terrain
treacherous. When it finally changes over to snow, Pinky says a
prayer of thanks.

Sometime after midnight the park ranger
begins to moan. Pinky moves to her side and says, “Don’t try to
move. You’ve been in an accident and I don’t have any way of
determining the extent of your injuries. Until help can get to us,
try to stay as still as possible. My name is Pinky. I work for
Drake Security and I am part of the search and rescue team.”

The ranger says, “It hurts.”

Pinky says, “What hurts?”

She says, “Everywhere hurts, especially my
leg.”

Pinky says, “Well, you have a broken leg. I
would say it’s a very good sign that it is hurting. That means your
spinal cord is probably not severed. As soon as the storm passes,
my buddies will be back for us. They know where we are.”

She says, “How is the boy? He fell off ... oh
God I fell off the cliff too, didn’t I?”

Pinky says, “That’s right, it’s a miracle
you’re still alive. The boy was too when they flew him out of here.
I haven’t heard anything in several hours. You must have glanced
off the tree limbs on your way down and that broke your fall,
that’s the only way I can figure out you survived. What’s your
name?”

“Sam, Samantha Wells. I don’t know why the
boy ran from me. I just wanted to help him. It was obvious he was
scared to death. There’s got to be more to this story than what
that couple is telling. They didn’t even have a picture of the boy
to give us.”

Pinky says, “Yeah, we thought that was a
little strange ourselves. Maybe we’ll find out more tomorrow.”

As soon as the sun comes up with clear skies,
Pinky hears the helicopter headed their way. He says, “Here that,
that’s my buddies coming to get us. It won’t be long now before we
get you some help.”

After stabilizing Samantha to the backboard,
she is raised in the basket up into the helicopter. Then once Pinky
is on board they fly back to the command center where an ambulance
is waiting.

As soon as they land at the command center
she asks, “How is the boy?”

Scoot replies, “They tell us he is stable but
still unconscious.”

After she is loaded in the ambulance Samantha
says, “Thank you Pinky.”

Pinky smiles and squeezes her hand, “You’re
going to be fine now, Sam. I put one of my cards inside your coat
pocket. Call me and let me know how you’re doing.”

As soon as the ambulance leaves with Samantha
Wells, the Drake Security team heads to the helicopter to return to
the ranch in Wyoming. As they are leaving, Pinky picks up his voice
mail and learns he has a message from Richard Dean. Listening
carefully he learns that James Bixby escaped from the hospital in
Missoula the previous night by taking one of his night nurses
hostage. They left the area in the nurse’s car which is thought to
be a small red sports car. The nurse is single and has no family in
the area. When they checked her apartment, they found signs of a
struggle. Her bank account showed a series of large withdrawals
from several ATM’s around the area. An APB has been issued for the
car and specifically for Bixby.

Disconnecting Pinky says, “Damn! Bixby
escaped.”

Scoot immediately calls the ranch to warn
Barry and Bud to be alert.

James Bixby is pumped, adrenaline is roaring
through his veins. He raped and then strangled the idiotic nurse.
Killing her was an enjoyable rush he hadn’t expected. Watching her
face turn blue as he pressed his hands against her throat caused a
rush of adrenaline to flow through his veins almost as good as when
he raped her. He becomes angry when he tries to sink her car in a
lake and it doesn’t immediately sink but decides he can’t hang
around any longer so he heads out on foot. Staying away from the
roads he starts looking for somewhere to steal a car. At least he
is stronger now and has some money thanks to that stupid nurse. He
still can’t believe she unfastened his handcuffs. After he talked
her into that, getting out of the hospital was a breeze. Thanks to
the guard he killed he now has a weapon too. Things are definitely
looking up.

As darkness begins to creep across the land,
Bixby sees a plume of smoke rising against the horizon and realizes
it must be coming from a house of some kind so he veers his path in
that direction making his way through the woods toward the plume of
smoke. When he reaches the edge of the clearing he is pleased to
see a practically new pickup parked next to a large log house. He
makes his way around the edge of the clearing to as near the truck
as he can get without being seen and then silently sneaks up to the
truck. He opens the driver’s door and proceeds to hot wire the
vehicle. Just as the truck starts he hears a large dog barking from
inside the house and the door of the house opens releasing a huge
German Shepherd-wolf mix that heads straight for him and the truck.
Right behind the dog is an old man carrying a shotgun. He slams the
door of the truck and speeds away. With a loud boom the back window
of the truck shatters and he once again feels a burning sensation,
this time all down his back. Damn!

Determined, he turns the truck south toward
Cody Wyoming and his prey at the Rock Springs Ranch.

******

When the Drake Security team stops to refuel
on their trip back to Wyoming, Pinky once again finds he has a
voice mail from Richard Dean. Listening carefully he learns they
found the nurse’s car with her body inside in an area lake. She had
been raped and strangled to death. Pinky’s stomach churns with
revulsion as he relays the message to the rest of the team.

Then before they take off, Pinky’s cell phone
rings again, “Pinky.”

“Mr. Williams, this is Richard Dean of the
FBI. I wanted to let you know that we got a report out of southern
Montana that I believe may be related to James Bixby. An unknown
man stole a pickup late yesterday. The owner blasted the truck with
his shotgun and shattered the back window but he doesn’t know if he
hit the driver. The description of the man matches that of James
Bixby.”