Finding Forever (Smoky Mountain Lawmen Book 1) (19 page)

BOOK: Finding Forever (Smoky Mountain Lawmen Book 1)
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And
three of them were rangers—rangers Ben had already run background checks on. 

Ben
shuffled through the papers in front of him again, looking for the original
background checks. 
There has to be something here
.

 

Gemma
jolted awake at the sound of ringing near her head.  She turned groggily toward
the sound and realized it was her cell phone.  She had placed it on the coffee
table before she had laid down on the couch to take a brief nap.  Her nap had
turned into all night if the sun streaming through the windows was any
indication.

She
sat up and picked up the phone, frowning at the unfamiliar number.

“Hello?”

“Hello,
Ms. Mabley.”

Terror
slammed through Gemma at the malice running through the man’s voice on the
other end of the phone.

“Who
is this?” she asked, hating that her voice was shaking, but powerless to stop
it.   Dread filled her, telling her she already knew who it was. 

“I
think you can take a guess as to whom you’re speaking.  I think it’s time we
ended this little game we’ve been playing, don’t you?”

Fury
replaced the terror at his words and she shot to her feet.  “
We
were
never playing a game, you sick jerk.  That was all you.”

A
cold laugh came through the line.  “So fiery is Davidson’s little lady.  I’m
going to enjoy you, I think.”

“You
have to get me first and that will never happen.  Ben will never let you take
me.” Gemma told him fiercely.

“Now,
see, that’s where you’re wrong, because he won’t have to stop me.  You’re going
to come to me of your own free will.”

“You
really are insane.”  Gemma couldn’t believe how cocky the psycho was.  He
seemed so sure of himself.

“No,
Ms. Mabley.  I’m just very, very smart.”

Before
Gemma could make a retort another voice came over the line.  Small and scared.

“I
want to go home.”

Gemma
felt her heart slam against her ribs and she sank back down to the couch as her
knees gave out at the sound of Caleb Lowell’s voice on the phone.

“Caleb?” 
Gemma swallowed hard past the lump in her throat.  “Hang in there, sweetie. 
I’ll make sure you get home soon.”

“The
boy is fine right now, Ms. Mabley, but he won’t stay that way if you don’t
cooperate.”

“You
sick bastard!  He’s just a child!”  She was going to strangle this man with her
bare hands for frightening Caleb.

“And
he will be fine, so long as you do what I say.”

Gemma
inhaled a deep breath through her nose, trying to calm her nerves.  “What do
you want me to do?” she asked, knowing that she may very well be signing her
own death warrant, but unwilling to let any harm come to Caleb.

“I
want you to meet me.  In the forest.”  He gave her directions, which Gemma
repeated to herself, so she wouldn’t forget.

“How
am I supposed to get there?  There are two cops sitting outside my house and I
don’t have a car because you made Stacy drive it into a tree,” Gemma argued. 
Her only hope right now was to lure him closer to town so she would have a
better chance of escaping.  Of having help close by.

The
man laughed.  “Yes, that is unfortunate, but is of your own making.  If you
hadn’t loaned that poor girl your car in the first place this whole thing would
already be over.  Although,” he said thoughtfully, “I guess I should thank
you.  I’ve thoroughly enjoyed toying with Agent Davidson these last few of
weeks.  Watching him run around in circles trying to find me has been quite
satisfying.  But, you are quite right.  Getting here will be difficult.  I do
think, though, that you would do anything to save this little boy.  I suggest you
get busy.  You have ninety minutes.  When you get to the parking area, follow
the trail into the forest, then I’ll find you.  Oh, and I don’t think I need to
tell you not to warn your boyfriend about all this, do I?”

The
sound of him hanging up cut off anything she would have said.  Gemma dropped
the phone next to her and thought furiously.  She knew she could get out of the
house without being seen, but finding transportation to the forest in that
amount of time was going to be difficult.  She glanced out the window at the
officer sitting in an unmarked car, a plan forming.

 

“What
do you mean she’s gone?” Tristan’s voice rang out in the quiet conference room
as he answered his phone.  Ben’s head shot up, the documents in front of him
forgotten.  He rose and leaned his fists on the table, waiting for information.

Tristan
looked up, the phone still to his ear, his face pale. 

“What?”
Ben asked.

“Gemma’s
gone.  She lured the officers inside then ran out and took one of the cruisers
while they were distracted.”

Ben
let the curses fly.  He should have seen something like this coming.  The woman
was too damned smart.  “Do they know why?”

Tristan
repeated Ben’s question to the person on the other end of the line.  Ben
watched as his face got even whiter. 

“She
went after Caleb Lowell.”

Dread
filled Ben.  There was only one reason that she would take off secretly after
the boy and that was if the killer had him and was demanding Gemma in
exchange.  He knew she would do anything to save the boy.  He also knew she was
too smart to think that the killer was just going to let Caleb go once he had
Gemma. 

Ben’s
mind whirled as he threw open the conference room door and raced toward the Sheriff’s
office.  Gemma had a plan and he was betting she’d left bread crumbs for him to
follow.  That thought alone was what was keeping him sane.  He couldn’t dwell
on the fact that she was driving into the hands of a ruthless killer. 

He
burst through John Raymond’s door, startling the man as he stared at his
computer screen. 

“Gemma’s
gone.  We think she got a phone call from the killer.  He has Caleb Lowell and
she went after him.”

Raymond
cursed.

“Can
you send a unit to Marcie Trent’s house?  She might be hurt.”

Raymond
nodded and picked up the phone to call dispatch just as Tristan stepped into
the room behind Ben.

“I’m
going to call our tech department too,” Tristan said.  “She took one of the
cruisers and they all have a GPS locator in them.  We’ll be able to track her.”

Ben
nodded.  “We have to hang back and not stop her, so tell all the officers in
the field to just report in if they see the car.  As much as I hate it, I think
she’s our only chance of getting Caleb back and bringing this killer in.”

Tristan
nodded reluctantly in agreement.

Ben
struggled not to pace the floor like a madman as Tristan called tech and got a
trace on the cruiser.  When they put him on hold while they traced it, Ben
growled in frustration.

Tristan
put a hand on his shoulder.  “Gemma knew what she was doing, Ben.  As much as I
may act otherwise, I know my sister is smart.  She took that cruiser because
she knew we could track it.  That bastard likely told her not to contact us,
but if he’s anything like most men, he sees a pretty face and her bubbly
personality and he underestimates her intelligence.  She’ll guide us to her. 
We’ll get her back.”

Ben
nodded.  Logically, he knew all that.  But right now he was ruled by his heart,
which was still stuttering in fear that he would never see her again.

Forcing
the emotions back, Ben turned his brain back to the case.  He ran back to his
desk and to grab the folders on the three rangers who had been at the horse
seizure.  Their killer
had
to be one of those three.  He had read and
reread the information they had compiled on the men several times, but a new
sense of urgency had him wanting to look more closely. 

He
reached his desk to find a fax sitting on top his stack of folders.  Ben
glanced at the header and felt his heart speed up.  It was from his office in
Richmond.  His partner had been running deeper background checks on the three
rangers associated with the equine rescue league and had found something.

Ben
skimmed the fax, eyes widening.  “Holy shit!” he breathed.  One of the three
had been adopted as a toddler, along with his infant brother, and his adoptive
parents had changed his name from
Jackson
to Derek.  Derek—or
Jackson—had also been a seasonal ranger in all three districts at the time of
the murders.

He
definitely had his killer. 

Now
he just had to find him before it was too late.

           

Chapter 20

 

Staring
off into the trees through the windshield of the cruiser, Gemma tried to gather
her courage around her like a cloak.  She had parked the car off the side of
the road where the bastard holding Caleb had told her to, and now she had to
walk into the woods.  Alone.  She prayed fervently that the officers she had
tricked into coming into the house had found her note and relayed the info to
Ben and Tristan.  She also prayed the officers wouldn’t hold her locking them
in her bedroom against her.  Truthfully, telling them that she thought she had
heard something at the back of the house and then locking them in her room when
they had humored her and checked out the “noise” had been the only thing she
could think of to get them to leave their cars and get them temporarily out of
the way without bodily harm.  She had told them it sounded like it came from
her bedroom and once they were inside, she had quietly closed the door behind
her then looped a leather cord around the knob and tied it to the room next
door.  To be honest though, she was more afraid of Ben and Tristan’s reactions. 
They were going to blow a gasket.

Inhaling
a deep breath, she pushed open the car door.  If she could get Caleb away from
that bastard, any amount of yelling and fury they threw at her would be worth
it though.  And she’d be damned if she was going down without a fight.  She
wasn’t an idiot and she hadn’t come unprepared.  Before she had called the
officers into the house she had packed a back pack with her hiking boots and a
couple knives as well as a map and compass.  Once she had gotten up into the
mountains, Gemma had pulled off onto a rarely traveled road and changed her
shoes and duct taped a folding pocket knife to the top of the inside of her
thigh and tucked one of Tristan’s longer fixed blade tactical knives into her
boot.  If she had had a small caliber pistol it would be hiding in the other. 
Unfortunately, she never thought she’d have reason to have one.  That was going
to get rectified as soon as she was safe and sound at home.

Using
the map and compass, Gemma set off into the woods to the wildlife area the man
had specified.  She moved as fast as she dared.  It had taken her nearly an
hour to set up and execute her plan and get here.  Now she had to hike a mile
through the dense Appalachian forest and only had about thirty minutes to do
it. 

 

“The
techs got the tracker location on the cruiser.  She’s north of here, near the
state line.  The car’s in the middle of the woods and not moving,” Tristan said,
rushing up to Ben’s desk.

Ben
held up a finger, listening intently to the person on the other end of the
line.  He ran over to the murder board and drew circles around locations on the
map they’d put up of where all the victims had been found.  “Which of these did
he frequent the most?”

More
rings went around two of the locations.  Tristan frowned and picked up another
marker.  He put an “X” on the map not far from one of the heavily ringed areas
Ben drew.

Ben
mumbled a thanks into the phone and hung up.

“That
was the ranger in charge of scheduling for one Derek Sutton, formerly known as
Jackson Halliday.  These spots—” Ben gestured to the circles on the map, “are
where Sutton was sent out on patrol.”  Ben pointed at the two more heavily
rimmed areas.  “These are the two he was sent to most often.”

“It
looks like that’s our killing zone then,” Tristan said, gesturing to an area
near the Tennessee border.  “That’s where the cruiser is,” he pointed the “X”
he had marked on the map.  One of the more frequented patrol areas and the site
where Diana Lowell’s body had been found were not far away.  “How sure are you
that Sutton’s our guy?”

“Pretty
damn sure.  I had my partner do some digging on the three rangers on Ms.
Coleman’s list.  Of them, Derek Sutton, was adopted as a toddler.  My partner
managed to track down a living relative of the adoptive family and found out
that his new parents changed his name from Jackson.  Sutton had a baby brother
too.  Lucas.  Their adoptive parents were into alternative medicine and very
rarely took the children to a western doctor.  Lucas died at the age of fifteen
from a staph infection.  Derek was seventeen.  The family member said his
parents tried to treat the infection with holistic medicine.  Sutton’s
definitely our guy.”

Ben
stared at the map, the “X” where the cruiser Gemma had taken staring back at
him tauntingly.  She was so close, but that was a vast area of dense wilderness
they had to search.  “Okay, so this guy’s smart and he’s got to know that we’re
keeping close tabs on Gemma, which means he knows he doesn’t have much time. 
There aren’t any service roads here, so any transportation he has is from an
ATV.”

“Right,
but he’s not going to be able to control both Gemma and Caleb and drive the
ATV, which means Gemma probably has to hike to wherever Sutton is,” Tristan
said.

“And
I’d bet that that hike isn’t going to be more than a mile to a mile and a half
tops because he knows he’s on a time crunch.  He has to—” Ben paused to take a
deep, steadying breath.  “He has to end this and get out of the area before we
figure out where he is.

“But
we have an edge, because of the cruiser’s GPS tracking bug.”  He uncapped his
marker and drew lines out from where the cruiser was, representing a mile and a
half then connected them into a circle.  “That’s our search zone.”

“Ben,
look.”  Tristan pointed to a spot about a mile south of the car.  “Didn’t
Caleb’s grandmother say that Diana and Caleb liked to go to a wildlife preserve
near Hot Springs and go birdwatching?”

Ben
stared hard at the map, hope lighting in his chest.  “That’s got to be it.”

Hang
on, baby.  We’re coming.

 

BOOK: Finding Forever (Smoky Mountain Lawmen Book 1)
8.19Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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