Whisper of Revenge (A Cape Trouble Novel Book 4) (21 page)

Ian kept calling for her, his voice coming closer.  Hannah
heard a thump followed by a startled cry.  Ian!  He’d hit him, knocked him
down.  And the duffel bag fell away as if the strap across her body had broken.

Cut, she thought, even as the large, dark shape bent over
the small one.

“No!” Hannah screamed, and threw herself toward the
monster.  “You can’t have him!”

Somehow she was clutching his leg, throwing punches upward
with her bloody hands, trying to hit his balls.  And Ian was whimpering and
crawling until she cried, “Run!  Run, Ian.  Go!”

Something cold and hard pressed into her temple.

“Stand up,” he said softly, “and start walking.  If I can’t
have him, I’ll take
you
.  One word, and you’re dead.”

Running toward the sobs and yells, Daniel lifted his radio
to his mouth.  “Flashlights on.  He’s out here.”

But silence had fallen again, except for a thin whimpering
that could have been a wounded animal.

“Hannah, say something!” he called.  “Ian, can you hear me?”

Other voices were calling, too far off.  What was
happening?  More flashbacks.  Trying to follow Sophie and the monster hunting
her through fog-shrouded woods without giving away his own presence.  The eerie
voice calling,
Run, Sophie.  Run
.  Not Sophie this time.  But the
disorientation was too similar.  Where the fuck were they?

Daniel swept the beam of his light in front of him, praying
not to have it pass over a body.  If Hannah had been killed on his watch…

“Ian?” he called again.  “Are you there?  Hannah?”

A small voice called, “Mommy?”

Daniel’s flashlight found him.  A little boy, turning in
bewildered circles.

“Ian,” he said quietly, lowering the light so as not to
blind the boy, “I’m a police officer.  Don’t run away.  You know me.  I’m a
friend of your mom’s.  Chief Colburn.”

Ian was brave enough to stay where he was even though he
probably couldn’t see Daniel.  When he crouched in front of the boy, that
tremulous, tear-thickened voice said, “Where is Mommy?”

Daniel had to say, “I don’t know.  But we’ll find her.” 
Alive, pray God.

*****

The drive had been grim.  All Elias knew was that Hannah was
on the move with the money, that police were maintaining radio silence, that
Daniel had to maintain complete silence, which meant not using his cell phone.

Having reached the city limits, Elias pulled over and called
Holbeck.  “What’s the latest?”

“She headed out onto the beach by the Surfside.”  Sean
sounded grim.  “Daniel has police officers spread out there, but not like we
could have if we’d known where the drop would take place.”

“I’m going there.”

“Don’t get in the way.”

Elias stabbed the screen and put the Land Rover in gear.  He
accelerated, once again too fast, but he had to be available if…  He didn’t let
himself finish the thought.

He arrived to chaos.  Flashing lights atop police cars along
Schooner Street, not just in front of the Surfside, but at intervals for a
quarter mile or more each direction.  An ambulance blocked much of his view of
the garish white light cast by floodlights onto the beach.  People stood in
clumps everywhere, staring.

Heart bursting, he braked behind parked cars and leaped out,
not caring who he’d blocked in.  He ran toward the ambulance.  A female
paramedic stood between open back doors, leaning inside until she saw Elias
coming.

“Sir.”  She tried to block him.  “You need to step away—”

“Mr. Burton?”  It was a child’s tremulous voice.

“Ian?”

The little boy struggled to sit up on the gurney.  In the
bright overhead light, his shaved head gleamed even paler than his blanched
face.  “They can’t find Mommy!  Not anywhere.”

His terror redoubled, but Elias glanced at the paramedic. 
“I need to get in with him.”

“Are you a relative or—”

Elias ignored her and vaulted into the back of the
ambulance.  He sat beside the freckle-faced boy, seeing the purple swelling on
one side of his face.  Ian flung himself at Elias, who wrapped his arms around
him in a protective embrace.

“We’ve been so scared for you.”

“I kept thinking Mommy would come, but she didn’t know how
to find me.  Except tonight, she was there even if I couldn’t really see her. 
She yelled at me to run.  I didn’t want to, but I did, and…and…”  He gulped for
air and tipped his head back to look up at Elias, tears running down his face. 
“I heard the awful man say, ‘If I can’t have him, I’ll take you.’  And…”  His
fingers bit into Elias’s back.  “I couldn’t hear her anymore and it was dark
but that police officer came.  And he promised he’d find Mommy, but I don’t
think he has.”

“Listen to me.”  Shoving down his own terror, he waited
until Ian calmed enough to sniffle and nod.  “It took us days to figure out how
to lure the bad man into bringing you somewhere we could get you away from
him.  Just because Chief Colburn hasn’t found your mom yet doesn’t mean he
won’t.  There are police officers all over the place looking.”

The boy’s head bobbed.

“Has Chief Colburn been able to talk to you yet about what
you remember from the time the man used Jack-Jack to lure you into the alley?”

The freckled face crumpled again.  “Uh uh.  And…and the man
said he killed Jack-Jack.”

“He lied.”

Ian went completely still.  “You mean…”

“I mean Jack-Jack is safe with Mrs. Stanavitch.”

“Really?  You saw him?”

A lump in his throat, Elias nodded.  “One of your mom’s
customers found him wandering in the road a few blocks from the store.  He
brought him to us.  Mrs. Stanavitch has been so scared for you, taking care of
Jack-Jack makes her feel better.”

“Oh.”  The small body sagged.  “Why would he say that?”

“Your mom ever read the story of Little Red Riding Hood to
you?”

Ian nodded.

“Remember when the big bad wolf says, ‘The better to scare
you with, my dear?’”

“But I was already scared,” the five-year-old whispered.

“Yeah.”  Damn, Elias was afraid he was crying, too.  He
pulled Ian closer.  “Me, too.  Me, too.”

But however scared Elias had been before, it was nothing to
what he felt now.  Hannah was gone.

*****

Ian is safe
.  Hannah clung to the knowledge as she
stumbled over the sand, the gun barrel digging into her back as her captor
urged her to greater speed.  She would have willingly traded herself for her
son if she’d been asked.  If she didn’t survive, Ian had.  He’d have a chance
to go to school, become the artist Elias thought he might be or something else
entirely.  Love a woman, have children of his own.

The bitter part was that he would have to go live with
Grady.  Ian would always be the outsider in that family.

She was hampered from any attempt to escape as much by the
duffel bag, which he had forced her to carry again, as by the weapon.  Her arms
and shoulders ached.  She wondered if her legs would give out the next time she
stumbled.  Her knees and the palms of her hands and random other places
burned.  An ankle hurt as if she’d injured it when she fell on the rocks. 
Somehow, she plodded on.

The lights of oceanfront structures grew closer.  Sirens
sounded, too far away to do her any good.  Just as far away, voices called her
name and she saw flashlight beams, scattered over the vast, dark beach, as
small as the stars in the night sky.  She desperately wanted one of flashlight
beams to touch on her…but something told her this evil creature wouldn’t
hesitate to shoot and kill a police officer.

Much nearer were the lights in the old motel near the
Surfside.  People had been drawn outside of their rooms by the activity and the
sirens.  Foolish, foolish, to go outside to watch a manhunt.

But she and he stayed in the darkness.

Her foot skidded on a hard surface and a hand gripped her
arm just above the elbow.  She had almost walked right into a sliding door. 
The room beyond was dark, and no patio light had been turned on.  He opened the
door, the metal making a gritty sound as it moved.  He shoved her in and closed
the door behind them.  The lock clicked.

Propelled by that grip on her arm, she cried out when her
hip collided with a sharp corner.

“Shut up!” he snapped.

She made out the shapes of furniture in the room and thought
she was in a house, not the end unit at the motel as she’d first thought.  One
of those shabby cottages butting up to the point, she realized, as if it made
any difference.

“Move it.”

They walked straight through the cottage and out a front door. 
He popped the trunk on a car sitting in the driveway, grabbed the bag from her
and tossed it in.  Shoved by the gun barrel, she awkwardly climbed in, too.

A masked face stared down at her, eyes glittering through
the holes cut out for them.

“You disappointed me, Hannah.  Trust is big for me.  You
betrayed mine.”

Trust
.  What she’d seen in the note clicked. 
I
know you
.

Too quickly for her to protect herself, he changed his grip
on the pistol and slammed the butt into her head.

*****

Expecting to see the female EMT sitting with Ian, Daniel
rounded the back of the ambulance.  He came to an abrupt stop when he saw the
man holding the little boy, his blond head bent over the poor kid’s shaved one.

“Me, too,” Elias murmured.  “Me, too.”

Daniel cast a glance at the hovering EMT, who shrugged.  “I
tried to stop him,” she said in a low voice, “but Ian seemed to want him, so…”

“Good call.”

Reluctant to interject himself, Daniel stepped forward
anyway.  “Elias.  Ian.”

Both jerked and lifted their heads to look at him.  He was
stunned to see that the cool man he’d thought he knew had wet cheeks.  As if
made self-conscious about being caught crying, he used his shirtsleeve to wipe
his face.

“Did you find Mommy?”  Ian’s voice quavered.

“I’m sorry,” Daniel said gently.  “Not yet.  I think you can
help us.”

“Me?  But it was dark.”

Daniel smiled a little.  “I know it was.  You might be able
to help us figure out who the man who took you is.  And it’s possible that he
will lock up your mom in the same place he held you.”

The poor kid looked heartbroken.  “But…but I don’t know
where it was!”

“May I come in there and talk to you?”

Having been given permission, he hopped in and sat on the
floor, legs bent, arms resting on his knees, facing Ian who kept a death grip
on Elias.

It became clear the boy didn’t know any more than they did
about his abduction.  He’d heard Jack-Jack barking and he told Mom but she was
busy and said it couldn’t be, so he opened the back door just to be sure,
because sometimes Mom was wrong.

“Yeah.”  Elias squeezed the thin shoulder.  “Everybody makes
mistakes sometimes.”

Ian sniffed.  “And then he grabbed me and he threw me in the
back of his car.  He hit me!”

Muscles spasmed along Elias’s jaw.

“I musta gone to sleep or something, ’cuz I don’t know what
happened after that.  When I woke up, I was in this room without any windows,
and the door was locked.  It was cold and scary.”

“Did he leave a light on for you?” Daniel asked.

Ian’s head bobbed.  “It was up high, and I could see wires. 
It was just a light bulb.  There wasn’t any switch, so I couldn’t turn it off
even if I wanted to.”  His shiver told the two men how terrified he would have
been in the dark.

Daniel considered him.  “Cold, huh?  Did you have blankets?”

He nodded.  “There was a mattress on the floor.”  His
forehead crinkled.  “It was like a garage.”

“Concrete floor?”

“Uh huh.  And some of the walls, too.”

Basement, was Daniel’s conclusion after he wrung more
description out of Ian.  Above had been open beams, with what was presumably insulation
stuffed between.  Two walls were concrete, two wallboarded in but with
“cracks”.  Unfinished, as was often the case with basement rooms used for
storage, laundry and the like.  Ian had been able to hear squeaking sometimes,
when somebody walked around up above.

“Old house,” Elias said quietly.

Daniel nodded.  Newer ones in the area were rarely built
with basements anymore.  Daylight basements were more typical of the houses in
Old Town.  Had whoever put up the walls  deliberately created a room with no
windows?  Very possible for a kidnapper – but from other things Ian said,
Daniel didn’t get the impression the room had been build that recently.  The
cobwebs had scared the boy, and the wallboard had been dented and dirty, he
said.

“Okay, you’re doing great,” Daniel told him.  Ian had
relaxed, leaning trustingly on Elias.  “Did he ever let you out of the room?”

“Only when I had to go.  You know.  There was kind of a
bathroom.  It didn’t even have walls!  Just wood with nothing between.  It only
had a toilet and a sink.  Not a shower or anything!  And it was real dirty.”

Framed in with studs, but never finished. 

Ian wrinkled his nose.  “He stood there and watched me.”

He hadn’t been able to hear anything at all while he was in
the basement except the footsteps, and sometimes a sort of mumbly voice from
upstairs.

“So tell me about him,” Daniel said.

The bad man always wore a black sweatshirt with the hood up
and a mask.  Sounded like a ski mask, fleece rather than knit.  The fact he’d
remained careful suggested he had intended to let Ian live, which was one
positive in this mess.  Ian hesitated over eye color, deciding the bad man’s
eyes weren’t really brown, like his, or blue like Daniel’s or gray like
Elias’s.  They were just kinda…eye colored.

Hazel, was Daniel’s mental note.  Which only fit half or
more of the population of Burris County.  And some shades of brown might fall
under Ian’s classification, too.

The man was real tall and strong, too.  Since most assault
victims exaggerated their attacker’s size, that part of the description was a
maybe.  Elias seemed to be thinking the same thing, because he had Ian think
about when the two of them had walked side by side, and compare that to walking
beside the bad man.  Ian seemed pretty sure it was about the same.

Ron Campbell and Patrick Fletcher were both around six feet,
Fletch possibly a little taller.  Either would seem “strong” to a little boy. 
DMV records indicated Fletch’s eyes were hazel, Campbell’s brown – but Daniel
had spent enough time with the city council member to be able to picture brown
eyes flecked with enough yellow, he’d have called them hazel, too.