Back on Solid Ground (37 page)

Holly had
been rummaging through a drawer.  She pushed it closed and told Jason, “His
pistol is missing.”

“How do you
know
that
?” he asked, clearly impressed.

“Because
Stacy and I used to come in here and snoop when we were kids.  He kept it in the
top left drawer.”

Jason went
into the bathroom and looked around.  There was no toothbrush or toothpaste,
but one of the towels was damp.  He opened the medicine cabinet and looked
through the prescription medications.

Holly came to
the door, “Find anything?”

“He’s
definitely been here recently, but it doesn’t look like he’s staying here. Does
he have a computer?”

“Yeah, it’s
downstairs,” Holly said.  She went back into the bedroom and opened the
closet.  She checked out the clothes right in the middle.  There were a couple
of pairs of casual pants, a sweater, some button down shirts and a hunting
outfit. 

“Check this
out,” Holly said, and Jason came over to the closet.  “Why would his hunting
outfit be right here in front?  Deer season hasn’t even started.”

“Birds?”
Jason suggested.

“He doesn’t
hunt birds,” Holly said.

Jason got
down on his knee and scraped something off the floor.  “It’s mud.  I assume
these must be his hunting boots?” he said, holding up a muddy boot.

“Maybe he’s
been staying at one of their ranches,” Holly said.

“One of?  How
many do they have?”

“Three.  And
then he usually has a couple of hunting leases too.”

Jason got
back up.  “Let’s check out the computer.” 

They went
downstairs and Holly led Jason to the study and pointed to the corner.  Jason
turned on the computer and waited while it went through its start-up
functions.  He checked out which websites Stacy’s father had visited recently,
but nothing looked relevant, then he pulled up recently edited documents. 
There was one dated three days ago and Jason opened it up. 

“
Mother
fucker
,” he said, under his breath. 

Holly moved
behind him and read over his shoulder.  It was a suicide note purportedly
written by Stacy and addressed to “My Dear Father.”

To My Dear
Father,

I’m so sorry
for the grief that my passing will cause you, but I cannot shake the depression
I have felt ever since my mother’s untimely death.  You mean more to me than
anyone in the world.  Please forgive me for leaving you to join my mother.

Your
loving daughter,

Stacy

“He’s a
lunatic!” Holly said, horrified.  

Jason printed
the document and closed it and pulled up another one with the same date as the
suicide note. 
Last Will and Testament of Stacy Trent
.  Jason shook his
head.

“Mr. Trent’s
been a busy boy,” he said.  He printed the will and turned the computer off. 
Jason folded the documents and put them in his pocket.  “What do you think? 
Anything else we need to check out here?” Jason asked Holly.

She was
having a hard time concentrating after the suicide note.  “The garage?” Holly
suggested.

Jason’s phone
rang and they both jumped. 

“Yeah,” Jason
answered.

“It’s me,”
Niki said. 

“Stacy’s
missing,” Jason told him.  He relayed everything that had happened and Niki
listened silently on the other end.  When Jason finished, Niki didn’t say
anything.  “Are you there?” Jason asked.

“I’m on my
way to the airport,” Niki said.  “See what you come up with on the prints.  And
call Carlos.”

“I’ll call
you with any developments,” Jason said.  He hung up and kicked a footstool
across the room. 

Holly picked
up the footstool and put it back where it belonged, then they walked out to the
garage.  Jason turned on the light. There was pegboard covering the entire
garage, which would more appropriately be termed a tool shed.  The outline of
every type of tool imaginable from hammers to rakes had been painted all over
the walls, so that each tool had its own space and one could tell at a glance
if any tools were missing. 

“
If walls
could talk,
” Jason said, and Holly laughed out loud.

They looked
around to see what was missing.  Shovel, pick, scissors, gas can. 

“What’s this
supposed to be?” Holly asked, pointing to an outline she couldn’t make out. 

“Rope?” Jason
guessed.

“What the hell
is he planning?” Holly asked.

“I don’t
know.  Let’s get out of here.”

They went
back over to Stacy’s condo and went inside to wait for any word on
fingerprints.

“I think we
should call the FBI,” Holly said, then she waited for Jason to protest.

“Call from
your phone” he said.  Jason called Carlos as instructed and filled him in on
what had happened.

“I’ll be
there tomorrow,” Carlos told him.

Holly found
Alex’s business card in a stack of Stacy’s papers and handed it to Jason. 
“This guy was assigned to watch Stacy when she first got out of the hospital. 
He was with her until Niki showed up, when she refused protection.  He’s a good
guy, and if it’s not going to get you guys in trouble, I’m going to call him.”

Jason
smiled.  “What all did Stacy tell you about what happened to her?”  

“She told me
everything.”  
Including how cute you were,
she thought.  “I know all
about you.  And I don’t want to do something that’s going to get you sent to
prison,” Holly said. “Only because Stacy would never forgive me,” she added.

Jason handed
the card back.  “Call Agent Kanes.”

“Who?” Holly
said.

“The guy on
the card,” he said with a
duh
.

“Oh, Alex. 
You’re sure?”

“Positive.”

Holly dialed
the number on the card and Alex came on the line. “Alex, this is Stacy Trent’s
friend, Holly.”

“What’s
wrong?”

“She’s
missing.” Holly filled him in on the bogus breakfast meeting but left out the
part about her and Jason snooping around the Trent home.  She figured the FBI
would find the suicide note and the will on the computer anyway.  They talked
for a few minutes and Holly gave Alex her number and hung up. 

Jason pulled
the papers out of his pocket that he had taken from Trent’s pocket.  “You ever
heard of this place?” Jason asked.  He handed Holly the receipt.

Holly looked
at it and laughed.  It was from a place called
Gidit n Go
.  “Is that for
real?”

“Apparently,”
he said.  “I took it out of her father’s pocket.  It’s from last week.”  He
handed her the other slip of paper.  “What about this number?  You recognize
the area code?”

“Yeah, it’s
south of here, like towards,” she stopped and looked at Jason.  “Like towards Victoria, where one of the ranches is.”

Stacy woke up
with a splitting headache from the chloroform and she felt like she was going
to throw up.  Her wrists and ankles were bound with scratchy rope and she could
feel it  rubbing her raw on her ankles. Her pulse was racing and Stacy assumed
that it was a side effect from the chloroform.  She hoped she didn’t have a
heart attack before she escaped.  She tried to sit up but she came up under the
trunk hinge and hit her head.   Stacy moaned and laid her head back down. 

“
Not again
,”
she thought.   Her only consolation was that this time she wasn’t in some
hostile foreign country and she knew who she was dealing with.  Stacy was sure
that once she was face to face with her father, she would be able to reason with
him. 

The car
seemed to be flying, and while it was hard to gauge speed while lying in a
trunk, Stacy knew they had to be on a highway because they hadn’t made any
stops or turns.   They slowed down for a few minutes then picked up speed again
and Stacy figured they had just driven through a small town.  With that
assumption, she started keeping track of how many towns they had driven
through, and how many times they had veered right or left, so she would have
some idea where she was when they finally stopped.  As it turned out, it hadn’t
been necessary, because when her father opened the trunk she knew exactly where
she was. 

“Hello,
Stacy,” her father said.

After the
blackness of the trunk the sunlight was blinding and she shielded her eyes
while they adapted to the light. 

“Daddy,”
Stacy said, involuntarily reverting to a term she hadn’t used in decades. 

Trent reached into the trunk and cut the rope that bound her arms and legs. 

“Get out,” he
told her. 

Stacy
wriggled around trying to get out of the trunk, but her legs were numb.  When
she didn’t move fast enough Trent reached in and grabbed her by her hair and
pulled her out of the trunk.

“Let go of
me!” she yelled, flailing her arms trying to make him let go.  She ended up on
the hard ground, and her father grabbed her by the hair again and yanked her to
her feet. 

“Stop it!”
Stacy yelled.

Trent backhanded Stacy knocking her to the ground again, but this time she got right back
up because she didn’t want him to pull her hair again.  Trent removed his
pistol from his waistband and motioned for Stacy to lead the way and he
followed, pointing the gun at her back.  Stacy recognized the old hunting cabin
he was leading her to as one she and Holly used to play in when they would come
out to the ranch in the summers.  It was one of several rustic cabins on the
ranch where hunters would stay, and this one consisted of four small rooms with
bunk beds.  There was no electricity or running water, and it was basically a
box divided into four sections with a door on each inside wall that connected
to the adjacent room, with one window in each room. 

“I have to go
to the bathroom,” Stacy said, before they got to the door of the cabin. 

Her father
motioned with the gun to the side of the house.  “If you try to run, I’ll kill
you.”

Stacy went
behind a tree and used the bathroom then came back out and led the way into the
cabin.  It was cool and dusty, and Stacy started sneezing immediately. 

“Get over
there,” Trent said, pointing to a bottom bunk, and he took out a pair of
handcuffs and cuffed her to the bedpost. 

“Dad,” Stacy
said.  “Why are you doing this?”

She looked
him in the eye for the first time and her blood went cold.  He was a madman. 
His pupils were huge and his eyes carried no emotion whatsoever as he stared
vacantly back at her.  His left hand was bandaged and he held it down to his
side.  Trent noticed Stacy looking at his hand and he held it up to her.

“That’s
right,” he said, with a sinister look.  “I guess you’re proud of that, aren’t
you?”

Stacy had no
idea what he was talking about. “Why would I be proud of you hurting your
hand?”

Trent’s face contorted and he held the bandaged hand inches from Stacy’s face.  “Because
that’s
what your henchman did to me!” he hissed.

Stacy
recoiled and he withdrew his hand and held it up and examined it. 

“But revenge
is sweet,” he said, in a voice that was foreign to Stacy.  “And that will be my
reward.”

Stacy was
horrified.  The man was completely insane.  “Dad, you need help,” Stacy said
calmly, trying to reason with him.  “You’re not yourself.   Please, let me help
you.  I love you.”

Stacy’s
father laughed hysterically, then his laughter turned to fury, “
Love
!”
he roared.  “What does
love
have to do with anything, you little
bitch!”  Stacy shrank back from him again, afraid he was going to hit her. “I
never loved you or your mother,” he spat. 

“Of course
you did.  You loved us both,” Stacy said.  “I know it was hard on you when Mom
died.  It was hard on me too.  And I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”

Trent stared at Stacy as she spoke, his face void of emotion, his eyes hollow pits.  When
she finished her sentence, her father moved his face right next to hers, his
cheek touching hers, and he whispered in her ear, “The day I killed your mother
was the happiest day in my life.”

Stacy moaned
involuntarily. “Get away from me you bastard!” Stacy exclaimed, her voice a
deep, guttural growl, and she shoved her father away.

He laughed at
her.  “That’s right,” he taunted, “I watched your mother take her last breath
before I shoved her head under.  They say that drowning is a pleasant way to
die, but let me assure you, it wasn’t,” he laughed.   “She fought like an alley
cat.”

Stacy covered
her ears.  “Shut up!” Stacy screamed.  “You’re a liar!”

Stacy’s
father was back next to her.  He grabbed her left hand and pulled it away from
her ear and put his mouth up next to her ear again.  “I killed your mother,
just like I’m going to kill you.”

“Go ahead you
sick bastard!” Stacy said, kicking at her father.  “I’ll come back and haunt
you until the day you die.”

“All in good
time.  But not until I put on a little show for you.  I’m going to let you
watch me kill your two henchmen first.”  Trent pulled out Niki’s card from his
shirt pocket.  “I believe this one is your lover?” he said, showing Stacy the
card.

Stacy’s heart
stopped.  “He has nothing to do with this,” Stacy started to say but Trent interrupted.

“He has
everything
to do with this!” he shouted angrily, and he threw his arms up in the air and
danced around the room chanting, “
Revenge
!” in a maniacal tone of voice.

Stacy was
freaking out as she watched the lunatic that used to be her father dancing like
a madman.   Suddenly, he dropped down on his knees right in front of her and
gave Stacy a perverted smile. 

“And on
Thursday morning,” he said excitedly, “when little Amy comes in to open up
shop, you’ll be hanging from the chandelier in your office!”  He laughed again,
then continued.  “Poor Stacy, never did recover after her mother’s unfortunate
accident.”